For many of us, coming to circus camp is our first time in Montreal. So the directors want us to get a chance to experience the city. Thursday afternoon, camp ends at two thirty. A red double-decker bus, the kind you’d expect to see in London, picks us up in front of the college. We’re taking a private tour, with a stop in Old Montreal before the bus returns us to our dorms.
Suzanne and Hugo will be our chaperones. They sit at the back of the bus on the first floor, where it is air-conditioned. The rest of us race to the top deck, which has no roof. It’s hot and humid, but after spending most of the week indoors at circus camp, the heat and humidity feel good on my skin.
I sit with Hana, who is wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat. Even though the bus isn’t moving, she is already snapping photographs with the smallest camera I have ever seen. Leo and Guillaume are sitting in front of us. When the engine starts and the tour guide’s voice comes crackling through the speakers, Leo turns and grins. I feel myself blush.
Guillaume drapes his arm around Leo’s shoulder and makes a show of pulling him close. “Will you stop flirting with the girls and pay a little attention to moi instead?” Guillaume says loudly. “Have you forgotten that I am your circus partner?”
“Those two are so funny,” Hana says to me. “I think the handsome one likes you.”
“He’s just teasing,” I tell Hana, but I hope she’s right.
The tour guide is giving us general information about the city. Montreal is an island. It’s the second-largest city in Canada, with a population of over one and a half million. French is the official language. Montreal is named for Mount Royal, the mountain in the city’s center. We’ll be driving through Mount Royal Park at the end of our tour.
There’s a lot of traffic on the Metropolitan Highway. When the bus comes to a halt, Leo and Guillaume wave at people in their cars. “Let’s see if we can make them laugh,” Guillaume says to Leo.
The two boys juggle invisible balls and pretend to duel and play the violin. Hana and I keep count of how many drivers laugh. Soon we are up to seventeen. It’s a good way for Hana to practice counting in English.
About twenty minutes later, the tour bus is winding its way through the city center. Sherbrooke Street is a wide boulevard where the Museum of Fine Arts is located. A narrower side street leads us down to Ste-Catherine Street, where all the shops are.
Genevieve peers over the side of the bus. “The girls in Montreal all look so stylish. I wish the bus would slow down so we could get a better look at the store windows.”
But when the light turns green, the bus picks up speed. Genevieve shakes her head wistfully.
“To your right is 1000 de la Gauchetière. At 205 meters—or 673 feet—it is the tallest building in Montreal,” the tour guide says. “There’s a skating rink inside that is open year-round. If you didn’t bring your skates, it is possible to rent a pair.”
Genevieve and Anastasia are sitting across the aisle from Leo and Guillaume. Leo leans over toward Genevieve. “How would you like to go skating with me sometime?” he asks her.
I can’t help feeling a little jealous that he didn’t ask me.
Genevieve squeals. “I’d love to go skating with you!” She says it so loudly the whole bus can hear her.
“I’ll be there too!” Guillaume chimes in. “Leo and I travel as a pair.”
The next attraction is the Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal. “This church is one of the best examples in North America of Gothic Revival architecture. Notice the ornate towers at both ends,” the guide says. “Our next stop is the Old Port. There, you’ll have ninety minutes to explore the old city by yourselves. We meet back at the bus at six o’clock sharp.”
From the bus, Guillaume and Leo have spotted an ice-cream shop called La Crémière. They want to go there first. The rest of us follow. De la Commune Street, which overlooks the port, is full of tourists. Hana has never tasted maple, and she wants to try the maple ice cream.
I see Genevieve elbowing her way through the crowd, trying to get closer to Leo.
“Do you like maple?” Hana asks me.
“Sure I like it. I’m Canadian, aren’t I?”
“What does maple taste like?”
“It’s hard to describe. A bit like honey. But more buttery.”
“Do you mean butterscotch?” I can tell from the way she says it that Hana is proud to know the word butterscotch.
“You’ll have to try it and see for yourself.”
We sit on the benches outside La Crémière to eat our ice cream. Hana’s forehead is scrunched in a way that makes me think she can’t decide whether she likes maple. I’m having strawberry.
Someone tugs on my hand. I can’t help grinning when I see it’s Leo. He gestures for me to follow him.
“I won’t be long,” I whisper to Hana.
“Let’s go have some fun,” Leo says.
So Hana was right. Leo does like me. So what if he invited Genevieve to go skating? Leo grabs my hand and whisks me down one of the cobblestone streets. It feels like we’re dancing.
Leo and Guillaume have visited Montreal before, so Leo knows his way around the old city. He wants to take me to Place Jacques-Cartier. He says it’s just around the corner.
When we get there, I understand why he’s brought me. The square is not only beautiful—lined with bars and cafés, customers sitting outside at round tables, colorful petunias in the flower boxes—but is also full of street performers. A man in a billowy yellow clown costume walks on stilts. Another man juggles pins, and two girls play fiddle. I think about Etienne Montpellier and how he started out as a street performer.
Leo leads me to where the juggler is performing. This guy makes juggling four pins look easy. When he misses a catch and one pin clatters to the ground, Leo picks it up.
Leo holds the pin to his chest as if it’s a baby. “Wah!” he cries out, the way a baby would. Then he jumps as if the sound has startled him.
The crowd laughs.
“Wah!” Leo cries again. He rocks the pin back and forth in his arms, and the crowd laughs even harder. The juggler laughs so hard he has to hold on to his belly. He doesn’t seem to mind that Leo is stealing the show.
Leo tosses the pin into the air, and the juggler catches it.
We are listening to the fiddlers’ performance when Leo’s cell phone rings. I can hear Guillaume’s voice on the other end. “Where are you? It’s almost six.”
“You’re so lovely,” Leo says to me, “I lost track of the time.” Then he dances me back to the double-decker bus. I wonder if all the others can tell what fun the two of us have had.
* * *
Later, when we are back in the dorm and brushing our teeth in the girls’ bathroom, I think about how to break the news to Genevieve that Leo likes me. It will be hard for her because I know she likes him too. Still, I decide it’s better to be honest.
“Genevieve…” I begin.
But she has something to tell me first. “Oh, Mandy,” she says, grabbing my hand. “Guess what? Leo and I are going skating on Sunday! He didn’t use the word date, but I know that’s what he meant. I’m going to have to get up super early on Sunday to straighten my hair.”