Sadie rolled her brown eyes as Martine laughed, much harder than she thought should be deemed appropriate.
"You actually fell? I knew you were physically inept, but Sadie, this is embarrassing," she cackled harder, going so far as to slap her knee.
Sadie scoffed, "Are you done yet? I'd like to get some food before I have to face the last classes of the day."
The pair were sitting on a bench in the courtyard, the rest of the students in their year mingling around them before heading back to the canteen. Sadie had just gotten out of gym, while Martine had finished Natural Sciences. The two were catching each other up, when Martine decided to bust a lung over Sadie's grievances.
"Oh, baby, you poor thing," she sighed, wiping her eyes. "This is not your day, is it?"
"Evidently, as everyone likes to point out," Sadie murmured, picking at a cotton fuzz that got stuck to her cardigan.
Martine grabbed a compact mirror from her bag and checked on her makeup, making sure she didn't smudge under her eyes. She soothed, "At least you got to sit out for the rest of the class."
"True. It may have cost me my dignity, but it was much nicer on the sidelines," Sadie admitted.
"I'm glad you enjoyed my company so much, Devereaux," a new voice interjected.
Sadie and Martine were surprised to see Descamps and his friends make their way over to them, a cigarette dangling out of the corner of his lips. Dupin and Vergoux were smirking as Descamps had his familiar cheeky smile. Meanwhile Molly looked extremely uninterested in the conversation about to take place. She'd walked over with them, but rolled her eyes and sat on a bench nearby and pulled out a book.
"Descamps," Martine greeted, not too keen on his and his friends' presence.
"Devereaux's friend," he replied, not taking his eyes off of Sadie.
Martine's eyebrows twitched, while Sadie looked at him curiously.
Sadie asked, "Can we help you lot?"
To which Descamps' smile turned even cheekier, bringing out his dimples.
"Why, yes, you most certainly can. I have a proposal for you."
Girls on different benches nearby swung their heads over at that, while Martine gasped and Sadie's eyes widened.
"Proposal?"
"Well, not like that," he amended.
"Not yet," Vergoux sniggered, quieting down when Dupin shushed him.
Descamps continued, "Class leader: are you interested in it?"
Sadie's eyebrow raised, before remembering the fight that had happened yesterday, under her watch. She quickly glanced at his surgical patch once again, before looking into his other eye and shook her head.
"That's not really my thing," she denied, to which he smirked.
"It may not be your thing, but it's your type, no?"
Sadie's eyes widened at him, while his friends giggled to each other.
"How did you..?" she trailed off as he took another drag of his cigarette.
"Doesn't really matter, but I propose this: I get class leader, and you go out with me," Descamps mused, gently blowing the smoke in her face.
Sadie's eyes widened beyond the size of marbles, while Martine blanched from beside her. Many of the students around started whispering rapidly while others openly gawked at the scene. Dupin and Vergoux were whooping and childishly shoving Descamps around as he stood firm in front of the brunette, cheeky smile still on display.
"D-Do you know the date?" Sadie asked, incredulously.
Descamps shrugged a shoulder. "Maybe, maybe not. If I didn't, then that would give me good motivation to find it."
Sadie truly didn't know what to say, being taken so off guard, she knew her eyes would dry out if she didn't blink soon. She couldn't take her eyes off of the twinkle in his eye as he stared down at her. She couldn't help but be a little endeared by him.
At least until she caught notice of the looks on his friends' faces over his shoulders.
Dupin had a wide smirk on his face, while Vergoux was practically vibrating. The three of them were in a pack, and Sadie didn't think she could trust her heart with these immature boys, who humiliated her and the rest of the girls just the day before.
"Are you screwing with me?" she asked, tone completely serious.
Descamps, however, didn't notice as he teased, "Do you want me to?"
Sadie's eyes narrowed, but many people started "ooh"-ing as Descamps held a hand out for her to shake on. His other hand was stuffed handsomely into his pocket, but she couldn't take her eyes off of his outstretched one.
"So, what do you say, Devereaux?" he asked smugly.
"No."
"Great, I'll just–" Descamps stopped abruptly, turning fully to look at her with a widened eye. "Did you just say no?"
"No," she confirmed, causing him to smile.
"Oh, good!"
"What—no, not 'no' to saying no! My answer is no, Descamps," she sighed, pushing his hand away and standing up to walk away from the newly formed crowd.
She heard everyone start to whisper once again, which made her speed up her pace, getting further away from the group.
"Devereaux, wait!" she heard Descamps call, followed by shoving and some curses.
"Hey, hold on," he panted, before grasping her left hand. "What just happened?"
Sadie turned around and faced him, eyebrows pinched as she frowned.
"That's my line," she scoffed. "After everything that happened yesterday, I would think you wouldn't treat me like I were a fool, Descamps."
She snatched her hand out of his loose grip, but he didn't let her walk any further.
"A 'fool'? I never thought that," he said thickly, a confused smirk sketched in his face.
"You truly expect me to believe that you and your friends aren't trying to play around with me, just because I showed you mercy? You are the most immature boy I've ever met," Sadie spat, huffing a little as she glared at him.
Indignation flooded across his face and he spoke, "I'm not an 'immature boy', what if I actually wanted to take you out?"
"So what?!"
Surprise colored his features.
"Huh?"
"Even if you actually did want to take me out, so what? Am I just supposed to say yes, despite all of the mean things you say and do? You pull pranks and tell jokes, then are surprised when someone doesn't take you seriously; why in the world should I say yes to you?"
Descamps blinked as he processed what she said. Sadie kept looking at him to see if he could answer, but he just had the same lost look on his face.
She shook her head again and went to walk around him, when he stopped her.
"You want me to be more mature?" he asked.
Sadie looked up at him and expected to see a mocking smile, but was surprised to see a dead serious expression.
"Well, it wouldn't kill you to be," she huffed.
He nodded. "So class leaders aren't just cute, but they're supposed to be mature, right?"
"What are you on about, Descamps—"
"If I find the date and become class leader, then I'll be mature enough for you. Right?"
Sadie's eyes widened once again, staring up at the fire she had accidentally ignited in his eye. His cigarette was no longer in his mouth and instead held between his right hand's fingers, the bud being rolled around a bit as she could see the cogs in his mind turning. She was a challenge now, and he wanted to win it.
"You'll be something, alright," Sadie muttered.
"Devereaux, I meant what I said, and I'll show you before the end of the day," he stated, dropping the cigarette to the ground before stepping on it and extending his hand once again. "Do we have a deal?"
Sadie held eye contact with him for a moment as she contemplated her decision. On one hand, he was a prat. He was a bully, he was rude, and he was asking her out in the least romantic way she had ever seen. But on the other, if he did become class leader, then he would have to mellow his friends out and stop acting up. She couldn't decide.
But as she looked over Descamps' shoulder, she saw Applebaum and Felbec sitting on a bench, Felbec tearing through a textbook and working tirelessly to find the date to the Battle of Marathon.
What are the odds of Descamps actually beating Felbec and finding the date? Sadie thought to herself.
Sighing, she said, "Fine. But only if you manage to tell your friends to leave everyone else alone. Including Pichon!"
Descamps looked a little pained, but reluctantly nodded his head nonetheless.
And at that, Sadie shook his hand.
carpe diem ⊶ joseph descamps
⊶ masterlist ⊷ prev | next
"she's a, she's a lady
and i am just a boy"
or
in which a school of boys open its grounds to thirteen girls, and they have no idea how to act
“You have a transistor radio!” Michèle says with excitement. She turns to him, holding it. “What do you listen to on it?”
Joseph shrugs. “Nothing, yet.”
“My mom would never let me have one of these, not in a million years,” Michèle says with a hint of sadness. “I can only listen to the broadcasts they choose.”
“Play whatever you’d like.” He gestures for her to do so, wanting to cheer her up.
She turns it on and finds a station playing something soft and instrumental; almost romantic, before setting it gently back on his desk.
Joseph steps forward so they are less than a foot apart, liking how she has to crane her neck to look up at him when they are this close. She reaches forward and grabs his sides, almost as if to steady herself. He cradles her face in his hands and pulls her in for a kiss. They are in tune with the music: slow and passionate.
if you guys are interested in just any writing i do as some people have mentioned to me before, i have actually written and posted a fic on ao3 a few days ago! it’s for michèle and descamps from mixte, a french prime show. i don’t know if anyone’s actually watched it other than Me, but i believe the fic works for non-viewers too.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Something I think is funny is that in a lot of fanfictions I read, Descamps is 18/19.
In the show, he is in 10th grade (the first year of high school in France), so he is 15/16.
I don’t know if it’s just a mistake made because of course the actor is older or if the character is aged up to not make it to weird for the people reading it.
The thing about “My brilliant friend” is that both Lenú and Lila are pretty fucked up women with a lot of issues and traumas. They both were raised up in a huge violent environment and basically if you read the novels it’s pretty clear that a very important part of the plot is showing all the different types of violence women are exposed to and how abuse and sexism can adopt different forms and levels, but are always kind of traumatic. So for understand both characters and their decisions it’s essential to remind this. Because for both (yeah, for Lenú too, even if she finally leave the neighborhood and became a middle-class woman) violence is deeply normalized in their way of seeing the world and many attitudes that the reader/viewer may find scandalous, for them are normal.
On the other hand, it is important to understand that Ferrante does not create characters to be liked or friendly. Except for Enzo (because Enzo is a saint) all the characters in the novels/series with any relevance have profoundly negative aspects. They all have selfish, narcissistic attitudes or do things that harm others. Even "positive" or "friendly" characters can be very unpleasant (Pasquale is a good example) This is something that is seen right away with Lila, who sometimes has very machiavellian and terrible attitudes (or maybe it is just Lenú exaggerating things, but I genuinely believe that Lila -at least in her youth- could become very horrible) and of course it happens with Lenú. Lenú is not a kind narrator or a sympathetic protagonist. This is something that is not noticed at first because all her self-centeredness is justified by being a self-conscious teenager. But when Lenú leaves the neighborhood and starts a life that her friends can't even dream of, a life full of opportunities, a life that she continues to despise because she thinks that Lila (her friend who has been mistreated, who doesn't have a penny and who is labor exploited) continues to live great adventures while she continues to be an insignificant observer, there we begin to realize how terribly narcissistic Lenú can be and the lack of total empathy that she sometimes shows. But you also have to understand how Lenú's mind works. Lenú was always someone he watched, who lived life through Lila. Lila is the practical, she is the part that reacts, that is pragmatic. Lenú is the emotional part, all of it is repressed emotions that constantly consume her. She is the world of overflowing ideas and feelings. Lenú continues to see Lila (even when they are both already thirty) as the teenager who ate up the world and could do anything. She has a very childish view of her friendship, stuck in the time of their adolescence. And that happens with everything, it also happens with love. Lenú tends to idealize situations and people, that's why she is totally consistent as a character with what happens with Nino. For her Nino is a childhood dream, it always has been. And she doesn't care what she's heard about him or is aware that he's a piece of shit. For her, Nino is still the boy she liked when she was little, just like Lila is the friend with whom she read books and played with dolls. Lenú's tragedy is that she achieves everything that Lila would have wanted to achieve if she had the opportunity, but she idealized her friend so much since she was little that his mind still thinks that Lila is the one who has the upper hand. The friendship between the two is tragic and beautiful at the same time. Terribly complex, like themselves. Throwing hate at these two characters makes no sense. They are not good or bad, they are just survivors.
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