Brother John
By; DaCow Takao
I do not own Beyblade, nor it's characters.
'blah'- thinking
'blah'- speaking English
Pale hands clapped together, trying to grab the attention of the third grade class in front of them as violet eyes scanned the students, waiting for them to sit down. Brushing slate blue bangs out of his face, the teacher frowned as he failed watched the children continue with what they had been doing, ignoring him. He was going to try again, until a small group towards the back of the class caught his attention. Three boys, one of them being the largest in the class due to being held back, seemed to be speaking to one of the smallest boys. The smaller had his arms crossed defiantly, trying to appear tough, though the teacher could see tears welling up in his big green eyes. The three other boys continued to say talk to him, cruel smiles on their faces as the largest pushed the small boy, unaware that they were being watched. The piggish face of the oldest one turned into a sneer, before he and the other two turned to go to their seats, while the green eyed boy look down at the floor, trying to concentrate on not letting his tears fall, before walking over silently to his desk.
"Mr. Hiwatari, I need help."
Kai stopped watching the boys and turned to the girl standing in front of his desk, she had the homework in her hands that the class was supposed to be working on until the end of the school day and the parents started coming in for meetings. Why had he become a teacher again? Oh yeah, apparently it was 'his calling', when truly he'd rather sit at home, eat fatty food, and watch soap operas, but we don't always get everything we want, now do we? The one question that really nagged at the back of his mind though, was why did he have to come to America? Even though he did have a gift with foreign languages, and he could already speak English with out an accent after two years of living in America, the children here in this country were absolute brats.
"Mr. Hiwatari?"
Remembering his pupil he was supposed to be helping, he looked down at the blonde with a questioning eye brow raised," yes?"
"I need help," the girl stated once more, placing the work she needed help with on his desk.
"Right."
Kai massaged his temples as he waited for the next parents to come in. As he heard the soft click of the door opening, he looked up, forcing a small greeting smile onto his face. He was met by a tired, and overly stressed, looking woman. Nothing was too special about the woman, her dull red hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she was wearing a blue business suite, though only thing that really stood out was her brilliant green eyes.
"Hello," the woman greeted, as she took a seat in a chair Kai had placed in front of his desk.
"Hello."
"I'm Mary MacDuff, my son is Brendan."
Kai racked his brain to try and remember who 'Brendan' was, he was tired from chasing kids around at recess, and then having to deal with the girl who needed help with her home work, who had some sort of hearing disability and he had to keep repeating himself, something he hated to do.
Mary sighed," he's small, with brown hair and green eyes?"
"Oh," the light bulb in Kai's mind finally clicked on," yes, yes, Brendan…"
"Has there been any trouble with him lately?"
Kai thought for a moment, before the thought of early hit him," I believe he's been… having difficulties, so to say, with some of the other students."
The woman sighed, rubbing her forehead," yes, I believe some of his class mates who live near by us heard that his father left."
"Left?"
Kai wasn't one to pry, let alone really care, into other's personal lives, but at the moment curiosity was getting the best of him.
"His father, my husband, left a couple days ago. He didn't leave a note or anything; he just packed up some clothes and left one night while I stayed at work late, taking a taxi to wherever he is now. It really hurt Brendan, since his father had promised him a fishing trip this weekend, and he really looked up to him."
"Has he talked to you or anyone else about how he's feeling?"
Ok, now he just felt like some sort of psychiatrist. Why should he care about some snot nosed brat, he had some twenty other students to worry about!
"No, he won't talk to anyone."
The mother was now frowning and staring at the floor, fighting back tears that threatened to fall.
Kai sighed," right, well, other then those problems he's doing fine. I'll make sure to keep an eye on him though, to make sure his grades don't drop."
Mary took a deep and shaky breath," thank you, that's good to hear. If you don't mind, I've got to go though."
"Ok, good bye then."
Kai watched as the woman stood up; grabbing her purse she had dropped next to the chair, and walked out the door. He let out yet another sigh, memories of his childhood coming back to him, though he quickly pushed them away as two parents walked in and introduced themselves.
"Ok class, start packing up your homework for over the weekend in you bags, and make sure to put your chair over your desk after you're finished."
Kai sighed as he had yet another exhausting day, not to mention he actually made a point to observe this 'Brendan' kid he had talked about the day before. So far nothing seemed to odd, at least to himself, the boy was just keeping to himself, not saying a word to anyone else and did his school work, nothing wrong with that. The only problem was he tried to remember how the kid used to act, and now that he though about it, he was usually a happy-go-lucky kid.
As he heard the bell start ringing, he let out a relieved sigh, two whole days to himself…Aw, tonight he could drink, tomorrow he could just lounge around, and then Sunday he could worry about other things- Kai was brought out of his paradise as laughter filled the room, right before the three boys he had watched the other day left the room, Brendan following behind slowly, his head hanging low as he started at the floor.
"Hey, kid?"
Brendan's head snapped up, staring over at Kai, before answering him with a weak voice," yeah?"
"You want to go play some soccer?"
"What have I gotten myself into?"
Kai and Brendan were now at the school's soccer field, Kai holding the soccer ball underneath his arm.
"What are you better at, defense or offense?"
"Defense."
"Ok, then try to get the ball into the goal, passed me."
The boy looked up from the grass he had been tearing from the earth slowly with his foot, staring at Kai oddly, before catching the ball thrown at him. The Russian man positioned himself in front of one of the goals, waiting for Brendan to put the soccer ball on the ground and move. Once they started, the two continued to play for almost an hour, no words being exchanged as Brendan tried to get a goal, which proved to be impossible with Kai as a goalie.
"This sucks," Brendan stated, dropping onto the ground so he could stare up at the sky, trying to catch his breath.
"You giving up already?"
"No," Brendan answered defiantly," I just don't have a chance in hell of getting the ball passed you."
"Watch your language," Kai quickly snapped.
"I hear you say it all the time in Japanese…."
"I'm an adult, I'm allowed to say it," Kai answered, wondering how exactly a third grader knew he was saying 'hell' in Japanese?
Brendan let out an exasperated sigh, before standing up," I've got to get home."
"Before you go, I've got to tell you something."
The brunette was about to walk away, but turned to stare at his teacher," yeah?"
"Never smiling is no way to live your life."
At his words, a small smirk crept onto the boy's lips, before soon a large grin was present.
"Thanks Mr. Hiwatrai." With that, Brendan was off, running to grab his back pack before heading off on his way home.
Kai sighed to himself," you've gotten too soft Kai Hiwatari…"
A/N: Yeah, the story was rather pointless, but I needed to show my sister up for writing her own story, and this idea came to me, so this is what you get.
This story was inspired by a line in the song 'Brother John', by Thousand Foot Krutch. It was used in the story, though it might not be too noticeable, it was the sentence 'never smiling is no way to live your life'. I guess it was just a spur of the moment thing, but whatever, I'm happy with what I've written, and I hope you are too.
Reviews are kindly accepted.
- DaCow Takao