“Dude that was awesome.” Tarzan said and high fived me. We made an amazing pass during practice and it has us all pumped up for the game. I looked over by the fence and noticed two girls standing there. I knew who they were, Belle stood watching; her hair pulled up in a ponytail and tide with a blue bow. Her too big white sweater hung to her knees, covering her light blue skinny jeans. She clutched her books to her chest, Jaylin was talking to her and whatever she was saying had Belle’s eyes widening in surprise.

“Hey dude, do you know those girls?”

“The one in the sweater is Belle, she’s new and a friend of the family. The one in the in the yellow is Jane, her roommate.”

“They're cute, introduce me.”

“Yeah, later. Let’s change first.” I haven’t seen or heard from Belle since the day I dropped her off at her room, seeing her now made me want to though. Tarzan and I headed to the locker room to change before going to the dining hall for dinner. When we walked in the dining hall I spotted the girls right away, they were sitting at a table by themselves in the back close to a corner. We stopped at our usual table to say hi to the guy’s before heading over to the girls. They didn’t notice us when we first walked up, they were too involved in what they were reading. Jane was reading a book about space and Belle was reading what I could only guess was a romance novel, the cover had two people kissing on it and they were dressed in olden time clothing. I cleared my throat and tried not to laugh when they both jumped in their seats. Belle, stunned looked up at me with her big brown eyes.

“Oh, Adam. I didn’t see you there.” Tarzan and I sat down at the table and I gave Belle a half smile.

“I wanted to introduce you to my friend, this is Tarzan but he likes to go by Zan for short. Zan this is Belle and Jane.” I looked over at Zan and knew that he was lost. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Jane and he had a dopey grin on his face. Ignoring the other two I focused on Belle, I noticed right away that she didn’t wear any makeup, which was nice. A lot of girls here cake on the stuff and it makes them look like clowns. I don’t know how guys can kiss their girls with all that guck on their lips. The idea of that stuff getting on me grosses me out. “So how’s school going?” I asked Belle

“Ah, it’s okay. I like my classes and the library here is huge.” The library? Does this girl ever put her books down?

“Have you seen anything other than the library?” She smiled.

“Yes, sometimes I go to the garden if it’s not too cold.”

“I guess you read their too?” Belle nodded and I wanted to bang my head against the table. This girl is at a new place that offers so much and all she does is read? I sat there pondering that when Lumiere walked over to us. He’s a nice guy and my oldest friend. He’s average height and build with short brown hair and golden brown eyes. He likes to dress in designer clothing, like the black slacks and gold button down he was wearing now. Around school he’s known as a player, always hanging out with the pretty girls.

“Bonjour Adam. How come you’re not having lunch at your usual table today? Oh now I see, Adam where did you find ces belles filles?”

“Hello Lumiere, this is Belle and that’s Jane. Belle is a friend of mine so be nice.” That came out with a little more force than I meant but I didn’t want him near her.

“Bonjour Lumiere, tu es de france?”

“Oui, mon je dis que votre francais variant bien. tu es de france?”

“Non, je l’ai appris sur le mien.” Okay this is bad, Lumiere is hitting it off with Belle and in a language I don’t understand. The only words I recognized where hello and France. They continued to talk in French while I sat there like a dumb jock. I didn’t like them getting along, for some reason it really bothered me. I had tuned them out for a minute but as soon as I heard my name I was interested again.

“Vous aimez Adam?” Belle blushed

“Je ne sais pas. Nous ne seuons pas que l’autre varie.”

“Mabe bien aue vous deux devriez apprendre a’connitre l’autremieux.”

“Je ne veux pas le deranger. Nos parents peu me jeta sur lui.”

“Oh, I see.” He smiled at Belle and said goodbye to her. “Adam come find me later, we need to talk.” Belle smiled as she watched Lumiere leave.

“He’s very friendly.”

“Sometimes overly so. Ah Belle, would you want to into town with me this weekend? All four of us could go.” Belle’s eyes got wide again and she looked down at the table.

“Oh, yes that sounds like a great idea.” Jane spoke up. We made plans with the girls before leaving their table. I looked back at Belle as I walked away, only to find her looking back at me.

I was heading back to my room when Lumiere caught up with me.

“You like her.” He said

“She’s just a friend of the family. Dad asked me to look out for her, that’s all.”

“Yes and dragons are real.”

“It’s true dad…” Lumiere put his hand up to stop me.

“Look Adam I’m not blind or dumb. You like her, I know this because if you didn’t you never would have bothered with her unless she came to you; but you went to her and you hated it when I was talking to her. I could feel your eyes borrowing a hole in the back of my head. To top it off you asked her on a date.”

“It’s not a date, and how did you know? Never mind I don’t want to know. Zan and Jane are coming with us.”

“Yeah right.” Lumiere got a thoughtful look on his face. “I think those two will make a good couple.”

“Yeah, I can tell Zan really likes her.”

“Yep, and unlike you he’ll have no problem getting the girl.”

“Maybe I don’t want the girl.”

“Yeah, you keep lying to yourself. Now do you want to know what Belle and I talked about or not?” I eyed him and waited for him to talk. “Well she likes you.” I perked up at the news, she likes me not Lumiere, the smooth talking playboy. “But she doesn’t want to bother you because she feels like you're fathers pushed her on you.” I frowned at that, yeah that was true at first, I wasn’t happy about being a babysitter, but now I don’t know how I feel. I don’t see her as a burden though. “So you need to change her mind about that. Oh, and one more thing.”

“What?”

“Someone else has an eye on her.”

“Who?”