Alfred woke up to the alarm bell ringing, and to his twin brother Matthew shoving him. Fuck, another Monday. Who the hell invented school anyway? Still, Mattie was getting rather excessive with his hits, and Alfred grumbled as he got out of bed. He slowly got out part of the uniform he was required to wear; he didn't bother putting on the blazer; wasn't his style. He put on an undershirt, the dress shirt (the name made him shudder), the stupidly fancy slacks, and a pair of his J's. You can't go wrong with those! He had a large amount of them, much to his fathers' disapproval.
Yes, he had two fathers. A couple named Arthur and Francis, originally from England and France respectively, they fell in love in America. They adopted Alfred and his twin Mattie when they were roughly four months.
Alfred trudged downstairs, to where his papa- or as he liked to call him- Francey-pants was cooking in the kitchen. Judging by the smell, it was pancakes. Oh hell yeah!
"Morning," Alfred called out.
"And the same to you!" his father called out cheerfully, long hair pulled back into a sleek bun. "Ah, another day of learning. Perhaps one day you'll find true love there?
"Shut it, old man!" Alfred fumed, cheeks burning.
But Francis simply laughed, and flipped one of the pancakes. "You never know, Alfred. After all, you know that Arthur and I met here in the states, as international students. And here we are today! Two beautiful children, a grumpy cat, and a great sex life!"
"What's this about a great sex life I hear?" a man's voice called out; Arthur. A man with particularly thick eyebrows, and atrocious cooking, Arthur was the other father in the household. Francis gave a seductive look at Arthur, who looked away with a blush. Ah, the average day things.
"Can we not talk about sex so early in the morning?" Matthew asked, rubbing sleepily at his eyes. "Maybe after school or something if you're that desperate, eh?"
The others laughed, as Matthew got himself a pancake, dousing it with some maple syrup. Alfred got some himself, a nice stack of four thick, fluffy disks of deliciousness.
Slowly but surely, time was up, and the boys headed off to the bus stop, and were off to school.
"Well everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend," Mr. Wang called out, "Because you all have a project on your current unit, about Britain."
The class groaned collectively.
"Oh, don't give me that! It's easy!"
"It's easy for you because you're old!" Alfred called out, a wide grin on his face. The teacher didn't blink, unfazed by stupidity of the boy. Hopefully, though, Alfred thought, he wouldn't be paired off with the Ruskie, Ivan. He was an unusual looking boy, with snowy hair in light curls, and unnatural eyes, a shade of purple and with a monolid. He had a big nose, and was constantly wearing a light pink scarf, and always wore the full uniform. He had an intimidating demeanor, and the smile plastered on his face didn't help.
But worst of all, was perhaps his father. His father was very vocal about homosexuality, and was highly against it; he was known to spit in Arthur and Francis' faces, calling them f**gots and every other deragotory word in the book. Alfred thought poorly of Ivan for that reason, as did the rest of the town; if his dad was against gays, then surely he was too! Still, Ivan was terrifying on his own, and he was a Russian; in other words, he was a communist. A terrible human being! Alfred thought to himself.
"In this project, you will research about lives during British rule in the 1400's, and will right a short story narrating how your daily life goes." Mr. Wang said, snapping Alfred out of his doze. This will be due at the end of February, so you have plenty of time; if you come to me in February and say you're stuck, and I see you've done absolutely nothing, that's your fault. Now, I'm going to assign partners; you will be in groups of three; Kiku, Feliciano, and Ludwig. Lily, Elizaveta, and Roderich."
Suddenly, Alfred's name popped up. Looking up anxiously, the name Toris was let out. Yes! He got the good kid! Toris was a smart boy, if a little shy. But wait, though... there was still another person... No no no...
"Now Alfred, I'm asking you nicely, so please behave this time."
No, no, no...
"Your third partner is..."
Oh God please no...
"Ivan."
"Dammit, why do I have to be paired with the commie?!" Alfred cried out, causing the rest of the class to laugh.
"Hey! Don't be like that, aru!" Mr. Wang called out, his tic appearing. "I'm sick of hearing you using profanity in this classroom!"
"And I'm sick of hearing the shit Ivan and his father say!" Alfred responded.
Mr. Wang sighed heavily, trying to not curse out the boy in Mandarin. "You will be partners with Toris and Ivan, Alfred, or you will receive a suspension," he said through gritted teeth.
"Fine..." Alfred said, simmering in a boiling pot of anger. Of all his luck...
"Dammit, where's Ivan when you need him?!" Alfred yelled, as Toris stood by him. It was now lunch time, and he was searching for the white haired boy; he needed to tell him to come over to his house, no matter how much he just wanted to scream at him.
"Um... Sometimes I go to the library after I finish with my lunch," Toris quietly said. "I always see him there, doing homework. He's probably there now..."
"Good idea!"
The two boys headed off for the library, Alfred singing a song a song from a cartoon; loudly at first, but as he got shushed by a teacher, he dimmed it down. Eventually, the two boys reached the library, and entered the doorway. The library was cluttered, a quiet area of mountains of books and pieces, a maze of literature surrounding every wall and every shelf. The two walked to the tables, where they saw Ivan occupying one of them, papers spread over the entire surface. As much as Alfred hated to admit it, the boy was smart.
"...Are you here to berate me again, Alfred?" Ivan asked, his accent thick.
"Not now, commie, maybe later. I just wanted to let you know that me and Toris are gonna meet up at my house after school tomorrow to work on the project. You better show up, and if you make any comments about my parents, I will kick your ass. Got it?"
The boy nodded.
"Good. And why aren't you at lunch?"
"...I... I do my homework.."
"Meh, whatever floats your boat."
Alfred and Toris left the library, Toris still not saying a word. He seemed to be mulling over something. Oh well...
The bell rang five minutes later, and everyone headed off to their next classes, and Alfred was left feeling incredibly bored as he went through his afternoon classes.
As the bell rang for the day, Alfred ran out of the classroom he was in, and the long walk home. While he took the bus in the morning, he walked in the afternoon. Matthew caught up to him, and Alfred, glowering, began to speak to Matthew.
"Guess who I got paired with in History?!" Alfred fumed.
"Someone you don't like," Mattie sighed.
"Yeah! And while I got Toris, I also got the fucking ruskie!" America said.
"Wait, what?" Mattie said, his eyes widening. "That kid? Ivan Braginsky? Shit, that's bad..."
"I know! And I invited him to our house..."
"WHAT?!" Mattie screamed. "Why would you do that?"
"I had no choice! We have to work on a project." Alfred sighed. "And now I have to tell Dad and Francey-Pants..."
Alfred and Mattie entered into their home, Mattie running upstairs to start on his homework. Psh, what a nerd, Alfred thought, before gulping at the task that lay before him. He walked into the kitchen, where his dads were sitting at the kitchen table.
"Um... Dad.. Papa... I need to tell you something." The two men looked up, alarmed; Alfred didn't call Francis Papa unless he was being very serious, or highly upset.
"What's wrong, Al?" Arthur asked, his thick eyebrows furrowing.
"Well... we have a history project... and we have partners..." Alfred slowly said, his parents looking on in confusion. "...And I told them to come over tomorrow after school to work on it..."
Francis let out a little smile. "That's not so bad, is it?"
"One of my partners is Toris... But the other one... he's Ivan. He's homophobic Braginsky's kid."
The tension in the room, already moderate, grew exponentially higher.
"...I... I see..." Arthur quietly said, looking uncomfortable. "...Well... um... we'll be fine, lad. Francis and I... Your father and I have self defense training, as well as a few years in the military..." Francis put his arm around Arthur, a supportive gesture.
"But isn't Braginsky violent?"Alfred asked, a worried expression on his face.
"Yes, he is," Francis replied. "However, Ivan is still a child... If Ivan does come to initiate violence, we'll be able to protect ourselves, and call the police if necessary. But... we'll still keep caution...
The next few minutes were quiet, before Alfred awkwardly left the kitchen, to play video games, to take his mind off of the topics. When dinner came later on, there were hamburgers. He had a feeling it wasn't a coincidence.
This is the end of the first chapter! Now, let me make a statement about the insults used in the story. If you read the rules I have on my account, I don't enjoy writing slurs about one's ethnic background. However, to me, these are a bit minor. Not only that, but my rules state that I will right them if I am of that ethnicity. I am in fact Russian, therefore I really don't care if I write ruskie. It'll offend me if used offensively, and I'll get a bit peeved if other people say it, but the word itself amuses me. I don't know, it just reminds me of a dog's name. Ruskie, Ruskie, come here! Good boy! And if I made Alfred say "Commie", well, I mean, it's Alfred. He's bound to say that kind of stuff. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoyed.
-Potato