Julia Lelieveld and the fifth element
~9~

The next few days passed quickly. We got a lot of homework, because the exams were coming up again. I still kept my cool with math and my sociable neighbor Sandra had given up being annoying. Everyone was still talking about Saturday's Halloween party.

During the breaks I sat at the table with Eva and Bas.

I also got to know the other friends of Eva and Bas better. Eddie, Victor and Peet often sat at our table. They were friends of Bas. Mia and Roos also sat at the table with us. They were friends of Eva, they were in the volleyball team that Eva also wanted to be in. I hadn't seen Lucas that week, but I had a great time with my new friends. I really never expected to be part of a group so quickly.

Lucas was not a popular kid, which I think he could be. I think everyone was convinced that the gossip was true.

He didn't do his best to prove otherwise, for at least he kept aloof from everyone.

On Wednesday we had gym class. If there was one thing I hated, it was gym class.

Since the accident, I have not participated in gym. Because of my blood loss I really noticed that it would take a long time before I would be completely fit. I had little energy. I just couldn't bring myself to exercise. At my old school they had therefore also taken into account and I had been given an exemption for gym. But because the gym teacher here didn't know, I just had to participate. I also had to be honest that I hadn't worked much on my fitness yet. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Physically I felt like my old self again, but I was still tired quickly. But that was probably also due to poor sleep.

The gym was on the ground floor at the back of the school. We changed and got in line. The gym teacher was actually still a boy, I estimated him to be around 24. I saw several girls pointing at him giggling. A bit of the same scene as what had happened at Bas and Eva's party last Saturday. The girls had been chasing Bas there too.

I had to say he was handsome. He had dark blond medium length hair and suntanned skin. He had a nice muscular body. He was wearing sweatpants and a tight T-shirt. Well, I thought to myself, if you want to draw attention to yourself, you will succeed. He looked a bit like a surfer, they always looked so nice.

He blew his whistle. “Okay, boys and girls, we're going to play strike ball. Divide yourself into two groups. Bram and André, can you help me get it ready?' He pointed to two boys.

Eva was absolutely thrilled. She was very athletic and was due to play a practice match with the volleyball team soon to see if she could join the team. A spot had become available and she embraces the opportunity with both arms to play on the team.

The lesson passed quickly. I was glad we played strike ball, luckily it wasn't that strenuous. The gym teacher was a nice guy. He did his best and the students liked him. He came over to me at the end of the lesson.

"You're Julia, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's right," I told him. He had a nice appearance. His blue eyes matched his blond hair.

“I always read the new students' file to see if there's anything else I need to consider, but I understood from the principal that your file has been lost for some reason. So that's why I'm asking you."

For a moment I stood transfixed and just staring at him. Gosh, I really appreciated that from Mr. Grotenbos. He was indeed a good guy.

"Something to take into account?" I asked him.

I wasn't quite sure where he was going, so I just bounced the question back to him.

"Yes, for example, I have a student with diabetes, which is useful for me to know. That if there is something I can act right away, you understand?" He looked at me questioningly.

"Yes, I understand." I smiled at him for a moment. "No, no crazy things to take into account," I told him.

He smiled back. "Fine, then I'll see you Friday."

"Until Friday." And I walked to the locker room. When I entered the dressing room, the girls looked curiously in my direction. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

How can girls be jealous of absolutely nothing?

"And what did he want?" Eva asked immediately.

I had only known Eva for a little under two weeks, but I could already tell that she was curious. Well in a fun way. In an honest and enthusiastic way.

"He wanted to know if I have diabetes or something." I shrugged.

"Oh, okay then," she said. "What a hottie, huh." she added with a wink. I couldn't help but smile again. "Indeed he doesn't look bad." And now Eva had to laugh too.

We were walking towards history when Eva asked me. "Have you seen or spoken to Lucas?"

"No more, why?"

"Just asking, I'm just curious if something beautiful will blossom between you two," she said with busy hand gestures. "Ha, I'd like to see those faces from the other girls," she said, laughing.

It's nice that she thought of me like that. I didn't even know what to think about it myself. I had only spoken to him twice. And yes, it was a nice thing, but other than that I really couldn't say anything about it. It was of course strange that he did not seek further contact with other students at the school. I'll just have to wait and see if he still wants to talk with me. I was curious about Eva her love life.

"And you? Do you have someone in mind?" I looked at her curiously.

For a moment, her cheeks seemed to get a little redder.

"No, but I'll keep my eyes open. There are enough hotties around here." And she raised her eyebrows for a moment.

Judging by that reaction, she definitely had someone in mind. But she probably didn't want to talk about it just yet, so I decided not to push it.

"You are quite right. I don't know what's in the water here. But there are a lot of beautiful boys."

She looked at me wide-eyed for a moment, then started laughing, and didn't stop until we walked into the history classroom.

This was the first history lesson I had. The new schedule had just started this week. The room looked just like the other rooms. The teacher was a man in his thirties. He had dark blond hair that he wore short in spikes. He was wearing jeans with a gray blouse and a black waistcoat. And he topped it off with gray sneakers. I sat down next to Eva who was already sitting at the front of the room. Probably with ulterior motives I thought to myself. I looked at her in disbelief for a moment and she returned her look with 'I know'.

Maybe they hired the new teachers on looks. For a moment I had to smile. It seemed like I was looking at things completely different from my old school. Maybe that was also because you know everyone and vice versa. I was new here, nobody knew my past. But that also meant, of course, that I didn't know anyone. I came in here with a blank face. I didn't know what had happened to everyone in the previous years. So everyone got a fair chance with me. I couldn't help it that Sandra had already lost it. I probably would have lost that opportunity with some people. But it had always been that way. You couldn't be friends with everyone.

I was startled out of my thoughts by the door closing.

"Good morning everyone. I see we have a new face in our midst." He looked at me with an open smile. "I am Ivo Groenhuizen. You may call me by my first name or last name. Whatever you like."

He walked over to me and held out his hand. I looked at him in surprise. That was the first time a teacher did that. I shook his hand firmly. "I'm Julia Lelieveld."

"Nice to meet you, Julia. May I call you Julia?"

"That's okay."

"Okay fine. Well Julia, if someone is new to my class I always give the assignment to do a report on the history of this town. You can work on it during class this week and the next 2 weeks and then I would like to see it handed in in three weeks. After that you can simply participate in the lessons that everyone receives."

I looked at him confused for a moment. I wasn't expecting this, but oh well, why not. I always liked to write a report about something I didn't know much about.

"You can find information in the library. Good luck."

And that was it. I looked at Eva for a moment and she gestured with her head towards the door. With the message that I could leave the classroom.

I picked up my bag and walked out of the classroom. It was extinct in the hallway. The history room was on the second floor so I walked down the stairs to the library. On the first floor I saw some students walking. They were seniors. The higher you were, the more often you had a break. I walked into the library and I saw a few students reading a book in the large benches at the beginning. Some were at the computer and others were busy writing.

Rob was busy putting books back in their place. I walked over to him.

"Rob? Can I ask you something?"

He looked up and smiled when he saw me.

"Yes, of course Julia, aks away."

"For history I have to make a report about the city. Can you tell me where best to look?"

"Come with me, I have to be there anyway."

He walked up a flight of stairs that led to the higher part of the library. Judging by the covers, this was the old part. There were only old books where you could barely read the titles. We walked between the high cabinets, there seemed to be no end. Suddenly he stopped. I had to do my best not to bump into him.

"Look, this cupboard contains all the history that this town has. You can immediately process everything on one of the computers." And he pointed to a table with some very old computers.

"Okay thanks."

"Good luck." And he walked away again

I turned to the cupboards. Geez, what a lot of books. This was going to take a lot longer than the lessons I had received from Ivo. That's going to be overtime, I thought to myself.

I put my bag down by the table with the old computers and went to the history section. There were large folders with drawn maps. Thickly bound books dating all the way back to 1789, the year the information about this city began. Books with family trees and so on.

The most important books were at eye level. You could tell by the covers which ones were being viewed. You could also tell by the dust, the layer was just a bit thinner there.

I picked up a random book that was at eye level and leafed through it. It contained all the standard information for an essay. You could literally take it over.

I loved a challenge, just my mind on something else. I looked at every cover of every book that was on the shelf and I stopped at the bottom right. There were six small leather books held together by a ribbon. The booklets looked fragile. You could tell they weren't read often. I blew the dust off it and carefully opened the first booklet. It was a diary. Carefully I opened the other five books and saw that they were also diaries, written by the same person. Geez, I thought to myself. This belongs in a museum. I picked up the first diary and sat down at the large table. While reading I found out it was about a girl my age. She was the daughter of the van Rosmalen family, one of the influential families that co-founded this town. Her name was Esmeralda and she had the same problems as any teenager. At that time, things were very different.

I was completely engrossed in the diary when I suddenly felt something on my shoulder. I was completely shocked and almost dropped the diary. I nearly fell off my chair to save the diary from a hard blow to the ground, which it probably wouldn't survive. I looked up and there was a smiling Lucas.

"That's another welcome." And he raised his eyebrows.

The tension quickly vanished from my body and I couldn't help but laugh.

Once I had laughed, he had already made himself comfortable in the seat next to me.

"It must be very exciting. You didn't even hear me say hello." He looked at me questioningly.

Oh, did he really say hello? Indeed, I hadn't heard anything at all. I was completely engrossed in Esmeralda's life story.

“I was indeed completely absorbed in it,” I admitted, holding up the booklet.

"Let me guess, your history paper on the city?"

I nodded. "Good first time."

"You can use mine. I had to make it before the summer. I had an A." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Show off!" I smiled at him for a moment.

"But no thanks, I think it would stand out."

"You're probably right about that," he admitted.

"Do you have to make another piece of work?" I asked him.

"No, why?"

"Because you're in the remote part of the library," I replied.

He gave me a smile.

"Oops, caught," he said mischievously.

"I saw Rob brought you here and I'm on a break so I took the chance to get to know you better," he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Well, that actually kind of fell on my roof. I felt flattered. He had rejected almost every girl in school and he came to me for no reason.

He sure was a nice guy, but now that he came up to me like that, I actually noticed I was more distant than I thought.

My whole body was telling me I wasn't ready yet. To expose myself to someone, or rather to Lucas. I didn't know if it would be the same with another boy, but at the moment I found it very exciting. It was probably completely harmless from his point of view, but my instincts told me to take it easy and not expose myself completely right away. What I couldn't do anyway.

"To get to know me better, and who says I'll allow it?" I tried to bounce back with a bit of arrogance. I had to keep it light for myself, I thought.

"Okay, whatever you want. Then I will start with myself." He sat down a little more comfortably in his chair and heaved a deep sigh.

That did surprise me. He wanted to tell me something about himself so that he could get to know me better. A great move, if I do say so myself.

"I moved here with my family in May. I live next to the small park in the Bird Neighborhood. I have a dog called Devil. I hope to finish school this year and then start studying to become an architect." He crossed his arms and looked at me. Okay, now it was probably my turn.

Well, he kept it rather superficial. Well, for me the reason to also react superficially.

“Okay, I moved here with my dad in October. I live in the tree-line neighborhood, which is also next to the small park. I don't have any pets and I hope to pass my exams this year and go to senior year." Now I also crossed my arms and looked at him defiantly.

He started laughing.

"I deserved that. Jesus, am I really that shallow?" he joked.

I waited a moment and he was about to start talking again when the bell rang.

He glanced at his watch. "Well, we'll have to talk some other time," he said, standing up. "Good luck with your paper."

"Thank you."

"Later."

"Later," I said back as he was already walking away. Another time, I thought to myself. Why me? Why would he pick me out of all the girls in school? I would ask him that next time.

I quickly cleaned up and headed for my next class.

I wanted to keep the conversation with Lucas to myself for a while. Eva was a really great girl, but she could be so curious at times. I didn't feel like the real girls giggling for a while. No, not today.

After history we had English. I liked English. Our English teacher had long red hair and wore a neat black suit. She was a nice woman. She told me that she had spent her childhood in England. We were also allowed to call her by her first name, Claire. She had prepared a fun interactive lesson. I was sure I was going to enjoy her classes. After English we had a break.

I planned to start working on the piece of history in my spare time. I couldn't do much about it at home, because all the books were here in the library. Eva and Bas had been whining that I had to go with them to the coffee house opposite the school. They could often be found there during a break, together with Eddie, Peet, Victor, Mia and Roos. In fact, the whole class went. No, if I had to hand in the paper in three weeks, it would be wiser to get to work. And with that in mind, I said goodbye to my new friends and headed for the library.

Four seniors sat on the large benches in the library lounge. I had seen them before, they were almost always together.

There were several old books on the table in front of them, and each one was engrossed in a large old book. Also a piece of work. I shrugged and walked upstairs.

I grabbed the diaries and got to work. The bell for the next lesson rang way too fast, I was still completely engrossed in Esmeralda's life story. I put the journal back in the cupboard and went to my last class of the day.

I hadn't agreed on anything that night. Eva started training for her volleyball practice match and Bas went to try a new level of some fighting game with his friends.

After shopping, I made a big bowl of lasagna so Dad could easily heat it up in the oven and we could eat it again tomorrow.

That night I fell asleep with a lot of thoughts. I dreamed that night that I was living in the time of Esmeralda. I had on a beautiful, classic dress and was tight in a corset. It featured all kinds of characters that I had read about in the diaries. I was awakened by the alarm clock. Geez, I actually slept all night.

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