Chapter One – Role Model Student

He stood up in the front of the class once again. His uniform perfectly presented, shoes cleaned so they gleamed under the fluorescent lighting, paper held in his hands as he read out his presentation. The only messy things about him were his blond locks that flicked at random places and his large and thick eyebrows. To every teacher in the entire school, Arthur Kirkland was the perfect student, minus his behaviour to certain students.

Arthur was always like this though. He always wanted to separate himself from his brothers who had gotten a reputation at school for being loud, rude and disorderly. All Arthur wanted to do was bring pride to the Kirkland family, which he now does.

At the back of the classroom was where the newly transferred American sat. His crystal blue eyes gazed over at Arthur. Sure he had seen people like him back at 'home' but he never met one quite like him. The American could almost feel an attraction to the boy.

After Arthur had finished the class gave him a polite clap as he returned to his seat. The teacher admired him for his extensive work on the given topic before looking down at the piece of paper that she held in her hands. Her bored brown eyes looked up to her class as she opened her mouth to call out the next name before she was interrupted by a bell, sounding the end of class. She almost looked relieved as she dismissed the class.

Arthur had already packed away his things, sitting up and walking out of the classroom before any of the other students. Snapping out of his delusional gaze Alfred stumbled about, attempting to pack up his stuff quickly and moving on before they could come and find him. Maybe this time I could try to hide out in a bathroom stall, it always works for girls in the movies, Alfred thought as he sat up with his things in hand.

Alfred walked down the halls to his locker nervously. Every couple of seconds he looked about to make sure no one was around him. Once he made it to his locker he shoved his stuff inside and grabbed out a couple of comics to keep him busy at lunch. Everything's actually going okay today Alfred sighed and smiled easily now. I haven't seen them all day. Maybe they finally decided to leave me alone.

Now usually Alfred isn't the one being bullied. He usually is the one saving the victim from the bully. After all he was a hero in everyone's minds at his last school. Alfred was the cool, sporty jock type that knew what was right and wrong. He was fairly popular, so when he moved here he wondered what had happened. Maybe it was just how the school worked? Or it just might've been that no one really liked the popular jock type here. All Alfred really knew was not to mess with these guys.

Arthur was given the go ahead to start running. With a bored little nod he began to run towards the sandpit. He picked up speed, determined to beat Francis's score. With a toe on the green painted line on the track Arthur jumped, flying through the air before landing with a gust of sand. He steadied himself before stepping away from the sandpit, looking back at it to see if he had done it, which he had. A triumphed smirk slowly found its way onto Arthur's face before he began to gloat his glory to Francis.

An argument between the two soon broke out after Arthur had finished. They shouted at each other demanding for a redo or to leave the scores be. Either way someone was unhappy. The P.E teacher Mr. Smith finally dismissed Arthur telling him to change before another argument breaks out. With a sigh Arthur left to go get changed.

Once he arrived in the changes rooms Arthur grabbed his things and changed in a toilet stall. He had always been unconfident with how his body looked. No matter how much he ate or how much body building exercises he did Arthur just couldn't put any weight on. Even now he couldn't look at his body as he changed. Arthur's ribs always showed, implying that he might be starving himself but this was far from the actual truth. His skin was pale and freckles dusted his shoulders and lower back. He always hated the freckles the most. They made him looked childish and odd.

As he began to tie his black leather shoes Arthur heard a rather unfamiliar sound coming from a few stalls down. It was like a rumble, a breathy rumble. Arthur began to concentrate on the noise, trying to figure out what it was. Finally, with his shoes on, Arthur ventured out of the stall and down towards the noise. He began to realise that it was a snore coming from the last stall.

"What the bloody hell?" Arthur swore under his breath before knocking lightly on the door. Maybe it's a straggler, Arthur thought. "Hello? Is anyone on there?" The snore came to a stop before a yawn was let out.

"Huh?" Arthur heard from the other side. "I must've fallen asleep. I wonder if I'm late for class."

"I assure you that you are very late for class," Arthur rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall next to the stall. "The home bell is about to go."

A string of curses could be heard from the stall before the door opened. Alfred stepped out, wiping some drool that was on his chin. Looking up he saw Arthur who only rolled his eyes at him, making a noise in disgust.

"Um thanks dude," Alfred thanked, quickly hurrying out of the change rooms where he had found a safe place to stay during lunch. "I owe you one!"

Once Alfred had disappeared Arthur ran a hand through his messy blond locks. "Bloody Americans," Arthur grumbled. "They really need to learn to focus more."

Not only a second after the bell sounded, alerting everyone the school day had come to an end. Now back to my noisy home, Arthur sighed unpleasantly grabbing his bag and heading out of the change rooms. Arthur walked a slow and steady pace towards the school entrance. He'd rather stay and endure another five hours at the school rather than go home. He didn't hate his family, he just found them annoying and hard to live with. Sometimes he truly did think that he hated his family though. Arthur would give anything for just another hour of time by himself. Anything at all.

That was when he heard the familiar yelp of a certain American that he talked to only moments ago. Arthur turned around to see Alfred being pushed up against the school fence by three boys that he only had ever talked to once. They were known for picking on the new kids but never had actually gotten physical with someone. Alfred dropped his bag, making comics and papers fly everywhere. His hands tried to pry the bully's strong grip off of his shirt.

Arthur watched the scene unravel before him, not a single other person noticed it. He was about to walk away thinking it was some kind of extreme taunting when the bully pulled back his fist and brung it back forward, connecting it with Alfred's jaw. With clenched fists Arthur felt an impulse wash over him. He began to run towards the scene as fast as he could, watching as Alfred was dropped to the floor and kicked around like a rag doll.

"Hey!" Arthur yelled hoping they would stop. "Bloody hell, stop that! He's my friend!" And with that the bullies stopped and looked curiously at Arthur. They were quite baffled at what he just said but not as baffled as Alfred as he watched from the ground.