fandomtownies | MCA Lobby; Saturday [ 08/29 ].

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MCA Lobby; Saturday [ 08/29 ].

Working on a Saturday. Jeez oh man. Rachel, however, would bravely bear the trials of being an important businesswoman and landlady proudly, with only minimal complain and sighs. After all, she was definitely in the loop enough to know that new teachers for the school's semester would be arriving today, and she had an apartment that was open for rent, and she wanted it filled right up. If there were new people moving in and it didn't get rented up, well, then, that was just a big stupid failure, and she couldn't have that.

She even went and made sure the apartment was all decent and presentable after Devereaux moved out, too.

Now to just wait for someone to come in, looking for a place, and take it.

[[ Open! MCA Info, and the last apartment has been claimed! ]]

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Who's behind the desk, listening to old records on her record player again, and filing her nails.

The school had sent Colette a packet of information on local lodging options. Surely they didn't seriously expect her to live out of a hotel or share with strangers?

So there she was at the first apartment building on the list, simply because its name, while (literally) unlucky, at least made sense in French.

She eyed the blond young woman behind the counter carefully. "Excuse me, do you still have anything for rent?"

Rachel looked up from her nail file, looked the other woman over for a moment, and then smiled. She placed the file down next to a row of pens, sitting up and continuing until she was leaning forward a little. "Why, as a matter of fact," she said, "you're just in luck. I've got one unit left,and I bet it's got your name written all over it. You in for the new semester?"

"Yes," Colette said. "I'm teaching cooking at the high school. I'm called Colette Tatou."

"What's the unit like?" she asked. Her experience in Paris apartment-hunting was not to expect much.

"Ah, Tatou!" Rachel said, her blue eyes bright, as she found an opportunity, hopefully, to break out some of her rudimentary French. It was very basic, but with a society accent, and she was thrilled to use it. Not since the embassy parties in Johannesburg... //"I thought I detected an accent. Do you speak French? I do, but just a little bit."//

Not enough to talk about the unit in it, though, switching back to her drawling English. "And it's actually the nicest unit we've got to offer, if you ask me. It's just the exact same layout as my own here on the first floor, but just a floor up. Two bedroom, plenty of extra space, great kitchen. Really, I'm practically giving it away for how little the rent is, too."

She had to in a place where housing was so available, really.

"Bien sur," Colette answered, with a slight smile. Of course she spoke French -- could someone so fabulous speak anything else? "My family is French. My boyfriend grew up in America, so my English is better than it used to be."

Linguini's biological father was French. This made him French to Colette. It was a thing.

"That's incredible. Is there a catch? Water dripping, no heat, something like that?"

"No catch," Rachel promised with a smile. Well, no catch other than the fact that she had to live on this messed up, weird island, but she wasn't about to go adding that. "In fact..." Rachel went rifling through a drawer for a moment to produce the lease paperwork and hand it over to Colette. "There's all the details if you want to look it over. I think you're just a winner in the game of Right Place, Right Time."

Plus, Colette seemed so normal. In fact, Colette was reminding her of all the French friends she had in Johannesburg, so Rachel would be willing to practically shove the woman into the apartment if she could, jeez oh man.

Colette read through it with a frown on her face, which turned into a smile when she raised her head.

"This price is a closet with a view of an alley in Paris," she remarked. "The Bad Luck building is good luck for me, non?"

"The Bad Luck comes from it being stuck on this island," Rachel said, a little sourly.

"The dean at the picnic was telling me about that," Colette said in her lilting accent. "He said the students at the school do magic and sometimes shoot guns at things. But the guns are an American thing, aren't they?"

Rachel just sort of looked at Colette in that moment with an upset little pout that did not want to think about things like magic, if you did not mind.

"Not...necessarily. I've never touched a gun in my life, but they were all over the place in Africa." She held up her hands, making a face and making it clear that she wanted nothing to do with those, either. "Probably not legally, but what was, there? Blech."

"What were you doing in Africa?" Colette asked, willing to set aside the topics of guns and magic. "You don't exactly seem the type."

"Suffering," Rachel said with a sigh that showed just how suffering she was. "It's so good to be out of that place, believe you me. I got stuck their for five years because my father thought it would be just a grand old family bonding experience to go traipsing to the jungle to preach the word of the Lord to the heathens. Oh, yeah. Great time. It's the most magical place on earth!"

"Like Disneyland but with more religion?" Colette joked. "No. That does not sound like my idea of a good time either."

"Not one bit," Rachel said crossly. "Not how I planned on spending my sweet sixteen, believe you me! The last few years weren't too bad; they were...endurable. I was in Johannesburg then, and my ex-husband was involved with the CIA, so we got to go to all sorts of lovely embassy parties, and that's where I brushed up on my French. There was a such a nice little French population in Johannesburg."

And very friendly, considering that affair with the ambassador...

"South Africa," Colette nodded. "I've never been, but I've heard it's very nice. I was in Paris all my life, more or less. I help run a restaurant there. It just seemed to be" -- and she was wistful -- "time for a change."

Rachel's sigh was also a little wistful. "Paris! Now there's a place I wouldn't mind being dropped into, but it's probably no big thing for you if you've lived there all your life. And a change to come here and teach? Sounds like kind of a downgrade."

"It is." No point in arguing about that. "And Paris is a wonderful city. But my boyfriend and his friend" -- no point in explaining the friend was a rat, that was something Colette tried not to think about -- "and I opened a restaurant a while ago. I think it's been too much closeness for both of us."

By which she meant Linguini was starting to drive her nuts.

"This is not so much work, and I'll get to see the States while I'm here, oui?"

"Oui!" Rachel agreed. "And it's always good to get a little space in a relationship. What is it that you'll be teaching?"

"Cooking!" Colette chirped. "I've worked in restaurants forever. I'm curious to see how the students will do."

She did not expect too much. They were, after all, Americans.

"Hope you know where the fire extinguishers are," Rachel said. Not that she was talking about her own cooking experience; she could have a decent hand in the kitchen. The fact that she burned things were entirely the result of the fact that she only had so much to work with, but, Lord, did she work with what she had! Anyone would burn dinner in the conditions she had to deal with in Africa.

...And she could argue that, after five years of getting used to the conditions in Africa, she was just adjusting to modernity again.

Nice, spacious lobby. Good vintage music. Recently changed lightbulbs...

Zooooomg, newbies.

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MCA Lobby; Saturday [ 08/29 ].

Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

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Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

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Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

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Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Re: Talk to Rachel -- 08/29.

Use the Lobby for Whatever Else -- 08/29.

OOC -- 08/29.