Can You Tell French Isn't My First Language?

Right after Aurora had received her acceptance letter to Beauxbatons she'd gotten right to work on her French, seeing as she only knew English, she knew that it was going to be difficult. So here she was, before the school year started, sitting in the pub, studying her dictionary. Sighing as she read over the phrase she tried to say it aloud.

Comment allez-vous. The phrase for 'How are you?', but when she tried to pronounce it, it came out sounding just plain awful. "Comet-Ale-Z-Voy?" She tried aloud and earned a couple of amused looks from other girls and boys. Sighing, she looked down at the page. "This is useless..." She muttered and glanced over to the boy next to her and showed him the sentence. "Could you help me maybe?" She asked hoping he spoke English.

Children seemed to be everywhere on that day and though most looked like they were his age and about to be attending Beauxbatons academy, Beauregard wasn't particularly inclined to talking to any of them. He didn't get the excitement of chattering while shopping. He'd rather just get it over with and get out but as luck would have it, he was not able to do that.

A group of kids were chattering and Beauregard watched as a girl with the most bogus accent he had ever heard attempted to greet them. All the kids laughed and Bo couldn't help but smile. He remembered being in a situation like that when he had moved from Banelieue to Liverpool and all the school boys called him a pansy because he only knew French at the time. He didn't expect her to come towards him and as she approached, his smile quickly faded. "I wasn't laughing," He said, in French, but as she handed him a slip of paper he understood that wasn't the language she was most comfortable with.

"You're lucky," He uttered in English. "You've chosen the right person." Not that he was jumping for the opportunity to help a stranger. But since she had asked, he figured it was the least he could do. "Comment. Allez. Vous," He enunciated each syllable as he pronounced it to her slowly. "Try not to drawl it out with such long syllables. Touch each syllable gently and if you feel like you're being silly, than you are probably doing it right." Bo explained. "Honestly, what is that accent? I've never heard anything like it in the UK and I've talked to plenty from the area."

Aurora bit her lip when the boy replied to her initially in French, but then gave a sigh of relief when he proceeded in English. "Thank you," She said with a smile and sat down in one of the chair to write down the tips that he'd given her. The boy seemed nice enough, especially since she was a complete stranger. "Oh, well, I'm from Corbin Kentucky, I guess I just have a little Okie in my voice from growing up on the ranch." She explained when he had questioned her accent. It was a little bit odd compared the the accents that he had probably grown up around.

"Rory." She said and held out her hand to the boy with a smile. She figured that she should properly introduce herself, since the boy had been nice enough to offer his help to her. "Thanks again, French is just so difficult...I've been working at it, but I just can't seem to get it down." She shrugged and sighed. "Well,  like they say 'Keep calm and get a little mud on the tires.'" She said chuckling to herself as if it was super clever.

"Okie?" Beauregard mouthed without putting sound towards it. This girl was so strange to him, but friendly enough that he wasn't sure he could just walk away from her without having her follow him. "Oh, you're from the states then," Bo noted. He had met an American transfer student while he was in Liverpool. She had the loveliest accent and he recalled being quite infatuated with her. However, it was nothing like this girl's, which left him still moderately very confused.

"Bo," He replied, accepting her hand into his own and shaking it gently. "No problem. New languages are always tough. German is the primary language spoken in my current household and I still don't know what any of them are saying most of the time," Bo noted. "It's keep calm and carry on, actually," He found himself correcting her without thinking. "Oh, states girl, right."

"Yeah Okie, it's like an Oklahoma accent, but it's easy to adopt when you live in the southern part of America." she said with a smile. "Nice to meet you." She bit her lip, "Current household?" she questioned when he said those words. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean?" and it was true, she didn't. She assumed he meant that he was adopted, but she didn't want to make assumptions based what she'd seen or heard, until he'd confirmed her suspicions.

Aurora wasn't one to speak her mind, in the sense of just not saying what she already knew. She was quick to figure things out, but wouldn't say anything until someone had actually confirmed her theories. She smirked at his nickname for her. "States girl, eh? Has a nice ring to it. I like it."

"Right, okay," Bo replied. He supposed it was sort of like how the English accent varied throughout the United Kingdom, depending on where one was. He bit his lip nervously as his words brought upon an obvious question, one that she would no doubt have yet one he wasn't entirely keen on answering. "I'm adopted," He answered, plainly. He supposed there was a lot more to tell, but Beauregard found it awfully personal to mention during their first meeting so he shifted awkwardly and let it go at that.

"Good, cause it's your new nickname," Beauregard replied, his lips pulling into a slight smile. He supposed giving her a nickname meant they were friends then. "Will you be attending Beauxbatons Academy as well?" He inquired, feeling a bit more comfortable around her.

Aurora nodded, and noted his body language. He seemed a little uncomfortable with the subject, but she figured that anyone would be in the position. "I didn't mean to pry." She gave him a small smile, to show him that her words were genuine, she didn't want to be too forward with him, this was their first meeting after all, she figured that they would have time to get to know each other if was also attending Beauxbatons.

She looked at her hands for a moment and then looked back and grinned when he told her that it was her new nickname. "Perfect." She said with a smile laugh. "But yes I'm going to Beauxbatons." She smiled. She was truly excited because she'd worked so hard to get accepted into it, her being a country girl from rural Kentucky and all.

Bo averted his gaze a little but nodded in response. "It's fine. I wouldn't have expected anything else, really," He responded. That's what happened when you had an odd family situation. People would ask.

He was glad to hear that Rory would be attending the same school. Maybe he didn't like sitting around and chatting with people, but it might prove to come in handy once he got to school so that he wasn't entirely lonely. However, he was a bit surprised to see an American come all this way just to attend school. She must've had one hell of a scholarship or something. "And here I thought I was going to be homesick coming from Germany," He noted. "Aren't you going to miss the states?" He inquired, though the answer was most obviously yes, but sometimes sacrifices like that needed to be made.

The young boy suddenly asked her about missing her home, back in America. "Well..." She started and bit her lip a little. "Yes, definitely." She stated with sureness. "I had to leave my best friend behind, her name is Penny and she's the most beautiful creature ever, I love her so much." She smiled as she described her horse and then noted the strange look she was recieving from Bo. "Oh sorry, um Penny is my horse." She said and gave a small laugh.

"I'm going to miss everything about Kentucky all and all, but I've worked so hard to get here, I feel like my dads are proud of me for getting into this school that, it'll be okay. Besides, I get to see them during the summer and winter?" She said with a reassuring smile.