Chapter One-
Arthur Kirkland loved England. He had loved it his entire life, ever since he was old enough to truly appreciate the great country. The Thames River, the temperate weather, the kind people, and, most of all, the beautiful English countryside he grew up in. His family's quaint brick home sat near a small town in the north-eastern part of the country, within driving distance of the ocean. In his younger years, he enjoyed the trips he and his parents would take to the shore for Sunday picnics overlooking the water. 'Nothing like a cup of tea and sea, right, Arthur?' his father would always say, resulting in a small giggle in response from the toddler.
Arthur truly cherished those memories, and wished he could go back to them, but recently, it became impossible. In his sixteenth year of life, his world completely changed, and due to his father's job, the Kirkland family had to move to America. Arthur had hoped it would be a good change, but so far fate was determined to prove him wrong. Their family hadn't even been able to move to somewhere classy, like New York or Los Angeles, but rather a small suburb in the confines of southern Minnesota.
The city of Eagan didn't seem like such a bad idea when Arthur's mother had been explaining it to him on the airplane. She described it as being only a bit bigger than their previous town, but with a few minor differences.
"For example, it is close enough to a major city that you can easily take a bus," She said, "but unfortunately, there is no ocean within a thousand miles… but I'm sure you will be able to make due."
But sadly, no matter how hard Arthur tried, he could not make due. He knew it from the moment they stepped outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, that Minnesota was just too different for him. There was no scent of salt water in the air, just grass and the humidity of the mid-summer weather. What's worse, he found he really didn't like the city either. He quickly grew to yearn for the quiet of the countryside, and to run away from the many cars and police sirens. The only slight hint of peace that he could find was in the fact that there wasn't much worry for noise in the suburbs.
He was also beginning to think that his mother had lied about the size of their new town, too. So far, he hadn't befriended anyone, not even his neighbors, of which seemed to practically vanish into thin air. So, rather than complying with his parents' demands to go outside and finding new friends, Arthur instead kept to the confines of his room for the three weeks until school began, passing time playing computer chess, and re-reading the Harry Potter series for the third time.
"You aren't going to get a cute American girlfriend locking yourself up there like that!" His dad had said at dinner. Arthur merely chuckled half-heartedly at the comment, but tried to pay it no attention. He had never gotten a girlfriend in his short lifetime, and it showed. He was socially awkward when it came to women, and had no clue how to treat them. He still even became flustered when watching romantic scenes in movies, despite the fact that most teenagers were supposed to be beyond that already. What's more, his father continuously would mention things about getting a girlfriend to him, silently urging him to take the leap. But Arthur simply couldn't, and he had no clue why, although he imagined cooping himself up in his bedroom could perhaps be a part of it.
But finally, after many days of lounging about his home as if it were a cage, the day had come. Arthur had laid out all of his clothes and school supplies the previous night to ensure being on time for school, and had even charged his brand-new cell phone his parents insisted on getting him for his birthday.
But unfortunately for the young Brit, he had forgotten the most important detail.
"Arthur… Arthur! ARTHUR!" Arthur Kirkland swore he heard somebody calling his name… but whom? All he could remember was that he was practically in his own perfect heaven, swimming butt-naked with the Faeries and the Unicorns in an ocean of tea. "ARTHUR YOU FAT LARD GET UP AND EAT YOUR FOOD!" He was quickly pulled from his slumber and blinked his eyes widely to find himself staring into a pair similar to his own.
"Peter…" Arthur mumbled, "what is it you…" He looked over to the clock, back to his little brother, and shot up from his bed in realization of his grave situation. "WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP SOONER YOU LITTLE TW—
"Mum told me to wake you up at 7 though! She said if you had time to sleep in a half-hour extra, you should be able to get ready within a half hour!"
"Peter, I don't have a half-hour! My arse needs to be at my desk at 7:25! I have 20 minutes at most! FUUUUUUUUUUU-!" The green-eyed boy rushed to get ready, thankful for having laid out his clothing earlier the night before. He haphazardly pulled on his favorite Beatles T-shirt, a forest-green hoodie, and plain denim jeans. He rushed into the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb through his wheat-blonde hair, and clamored down the stairs to quickly grab his school bag. Just as Arthur was about to burst outside to head towards the bus stop, though, he was pulled back into the house by his mother.
"Darling, you've already missed the bus! Here, Dad will drive you." She hurriedly handed a bag lunch to her son, and pointed him in the direction of the Garage. "Have a good day at school, Artie! Meet some friends!" She hollered in encouragement as he and her husband scurried to the family's brand-new 2000 Volkswagen.
"I can't make any promises!" Replied Arthur jokingly as he hopped into the vehicle, and sped away to his newest challenge.
Arthur's upper school back in England had been one of his favorite places (only second to the beach) while he was living there. The then 15-year-old Brit had been quite popular amongst his friends there, and gotten A's in almost all of his papers, excluding of course mathematics and science, which he completely did not understand, but that was beside the point. His school had been quite the convenience for him, actually, as it was an all-boys Anglican school not three miles from his home. His father had been against the idea at first, saying that upper school was when the girls finally started to stop hating boys, but Arthur's mother insisted, and in the end was able to convince her husband to allow it.
Arthur's two short years at that school had truly been enlightening and enjoyable, but unfortunately for the young Englishman, as he stared at his new high school, he realized that he might not receive the same treatment in America.
I wonder if it's possible to run all the way back to England… he wondered to himself, but was driven from his thoughts when he almost got trampled over a group of students rushing to be on-time to class.
"Bloody teenagers!"Arthur cursed to himself, not caring if he sounded like an old man. But rather than getting angry, he knew he should be following suit, as there were only 5 minutes until the first day of the end of his life began.
Arthur decided he didn't have time to stop by his locker, and was thankful for his wise decision, because the school was fucking huge. He barely made it to his classroom in time before the final bell rang. The building that the school was in had only been built ten years ago, so why did they have to make it so fucking confusing? At first, the layout seemed simple, with numbers starting with a '0' on the ground floor, 1's on the first floor, and 2's on the second floor. But then that's where it got confusing. Some of the numbers appeared to be… missing? Arthur's first class was in room 235, so it couldn't be that difficult to find, but after he climbed the stairs to the top floor, the blonde found himself surrounded by rooms in the 280's. He continued on to look for 270's to know that he was going the right way, but it was futile. There were none. He continued his search, but only found himself at a dead-end, and proceeded to double back down the hall, and took a left past the main stairwell. But this time, he found himself in the vicinity of rooms marked 254 and 252. At least I'm heading in the right direction. He tried to be positive, but when he heard the warning bell, Arthur grew anxious. Suddenly, though, he spotted a boy rounding the corner, clearly not worried about being late to his first class.
"Umm, excuse me!" Arthur jogged up to the blonde student. "But do you know where room 235 is?" The boy looked surprised for a moment, his deep-blue eyes widening a bit behind poorly cleaned glasses, but pointed directly down the long hallway.
"Those are all the 230 rooms down there, you'll find it." The boy answered happily, grinning widely. "I'll give ya a hint: it's not on the side with the windows." Arthur thanked the boy, and proceeded to go into a full-sprint down the hallway, not caring that other students could see him through the open classrooms, and finally stepped foot into his World History classroom just as the bell starting the school day rang.
"Well, aren't we lucky?" He heard a man's voice announce enthusiastically at the back of the room by the whiteboard. "I'm happy someone tries to be punctual on the dreaded first day!" Arthur didn't quite understand what he meant, until he saw other students stumble into the classroom right after him, sullen in defeat.
"Mr. Antiqua, are you really going to count us tardy on the first day?" One girl whined. The middle-aged teacher smiled.
"Fortunately for you, no." Arthur could hear a collective sigh of relief throughout the class. "But for the rest of the year, I will, trust me. I'm trusting all of you who are walking in past the bell will take today as a lesson to not be tardy again?" Several students nodded yes, even though they were probably lying, but it assured Mr. Antiqua nonetheless. "Alright, so let's get everyone situated, okay?" He began to look through his desk for a seating arrangement, but appeared to have been unsuccessful. "Hmm… I guess I forgot to make one!" Several of the kids laughed, but Arthur could only mentally facepalm himself. Did this guy seriously get a job as a teacher? "Well, no matter!" Mr. A bounded back to the center of the room with a piece of paper and a sharpie marker. "Everybody, Quick! Findaseatthatyouwantbecauseit'safreeforall!" It took a moment for Arthur to compute what he had said, but when he saw students bounding around the room for certain desks, he too followed suit, and quickly picked the spot closest to him, next to a familiar-looking blonde… wait, WHAT? This can't be the same kid I saw back there! He was sitting here the second I got into the classroom!
"Wait, weren't you just down at the end of the hallway a moment ago?" Arthur asked to his neighbor. The boy turned to him, and Arthur could indeed see the resemblance.
"Uhh… what? I d-don't understand…" He answered quietly. Arthur could've smacked himself. It really wasn't the same guy. He was far too quiet and shy-looking.
"I-I'm sorry." Said Arthur, embarrassed. "I mistook you for someone else." The boy gave a tiny smile.
"No, it's fine… I usually don't even get noticed, so it's fine by me." He answered timidly. After a moment, he spoke up again. "Hey… are you from the U.K.?"
"Heh, indeed I am. You could tell?"
"You have a very thick accent… it's hard not to." Arthur wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.
"Okay you goblins!" Said Mr. Antiqua in the front of the room, bringing the class's attention to him once more. "I'm Mr. Antiqua, your American History teacher for the rest of the trimester. You can call me Mr. A, Mr. Antiqua, or even Roma, my first name, if you wish. Names that are not acceptable include: A-dog, Ancient Rome, Roma-mia, or any other crap you will attempt to come up with in the future. Alright, now I'm gonna call attendance, and then I'll pass this blank seating arrangement around for everyone to write their names on. Here we go… oh god, you kids really need to get normal names..."
As the hour went on, Arthur felt better about his new school. His quiet neighbor's name was Matthew Williams, and he had moved here from Canada five years ago to be closer to family, so he too knew what it was like to be the new kid. Arthur had also befriended two other boys: Tino, who had been born in Finland (Arthur couldn't even begin to pronounce his last name), and Heracles Karpusi, a boy who really liked cats, whose parents were both Greek immigrants. Once class ended, as they were packing up their things, Matthew asked Arthur what lunch he had. Arthur checked his schedule.
"It says… B-Lunch." The quiet boy's face lit up.
"That's great! Heracles, Tino, and I both have that lunch too, and so do some of our other friends that you need to meet." The Brit couldn't help but become excited for lunchtime to come around.
Thankfully, the next few class periods, including homeroom, passed fairly quickly, as the first day was shortened for upperclassmen so freshmen could become accustomed to the new school. If only they had that for people like me. Arthur thought to himself. But no matter, he had new friends who could give him the ups and downs of Eagan High School.
The moment Arthur stepped into the cafeteria he became a tad bit overwhelmed. I could fit my house in here… twice! Much to his luck, though, a familiar hand waved him over to a table near the windows on the far side of the massive room, and he took his spot between Matthew and Tino, with Heracles situated to Matthew's right. Next to him was a meek-looking Asian boy reading a book with a girl resembling him resting her head on his shoulder.
"Let me introduce you to everybody." Matthew said. "This is Kiku Honda," He gestured over to the Asian boy. "And his little sister Meimei." The girl waved shyly to Arthur. "This is Elizaveta Herdervary and her boyfriend Roderich Edelstein." Arthur turned his gaze to a pretty girl with long, flowing, light-brown hair, who was attempting to feed a spoonful of applesauce to a dark-haired boy with deep purple eyes.
"Hi there, Arthur! Nice to meet you!" Said Elizaveta cheerfully as she continued attempting to spoon-feed her boyfriend.
"And this here is Berwald." Said Tino as he pointed to a tall, menacing-looking blonde guy who was hovering over him. Matthew leaned over to whisper into Arthur's ear.
"He and Tino are husband and wife." He said comically. Arthur snickered through his turkey sandwich.
Suddenly, though, a huge burst of laughter drew their attentions to a completely different lunch table. It was situated over by one of the humungous pillars that were placed sporadically throughout the commons.
"Oh God it's the Trio again…" Said Elizaveta despairingly.
"The Trio?" Inquired Arthur.
"Yeah, they always hang out with each other and keep to themselves, but even despite that, everybody knows about them, since they're so damn noisy." She explained. "They always try to be in the same classes, and annoy the teachers to no end. The tan one with the dark hair is Antonio," Arthur looked over and spotted him talking to a boy with golden eyes and an annoyed expression. "The Albino is Gilbert, he's the one you heard laughing. Thinks he's so awesome…" He could see the pale boy sitting next to Antonio, with his red eyes continuously drifting over to their table. "And the blondie with the stubble is Francis, a pervert, but I guess he's likeable." Matthew looked over to Elizaveta, shocked.
"Likeable? H-he has hit on me so many times I've lost count! I can't even walk to class without worrying he'll come up behind me and smack my butt!" She giggled relentlessly.
"That's the likeable part about him, silly Matt! His humor makes up for his perverseness." Matthew slunk back in his chair in defeat. Arthur chuckled.
"So, who are the other people at their table?" He asked.
"Oh, the two ones with the curls are the Vargas brothers!" Elizaveta said happily. "The stupid-looking one, Feliciano, is such a sweety! His brother, Lovino, though… eh…" She trailed off.
"He doesn't really get along with anyone," Chimed in Heracles. "Anyone, except for Antonio."
"Ahh, I see. But why not?" Asked the Brit.
"He's an ass." Said Roderich bluntly. "He is also very protective of his brother, who always manages to get himself into trouble. Also, a warning: he is extremely foul-mouthed. He can swear like a sailor, even more so than Eliza." Said brunette shifted her gaze over to the Austrian, glaring jokingly.
"Annnddd…" She turned back to Arthur. "The burly blonde one is Ludwig, Gilbert's younger brother." Arthur gawked.
"Y-younger? He looks like he could be a senior! Or even in university!" The curvaceous girl laughed.
"Nope, he's in our grade. The guys in the Trio are all a year ahead of us, but the Vargas brothers and Ludwig are indeed our age." Arthur had to admit it, the schools in America were most certainly more diverse than those back in Britain.
After lunch, and after the last 3 class periods, Matthew had invited Arthur to walk home with him.
"So, what neighborhood do you live in?" Asked Matthew as lunch was dismissing.
"Um, Hawthorne Woods." Answered the green-eyed boy. Matthew smiled.
"Same here, west side? Near the elementary school?" Arthur nodded yes.
"Alright then, we should walk home together." He said.
"Sure, but why not take the bus?" Arthur asked.
"Because you get more time to talk then."
And so, Arthur stood outside the East Entrance to the school, watching as upperclassmen (and a few freeloading sophomores and freshmen) got into their cars to embrace the few free hours they had after school had let out.
After nearly 10 minutes of waiting, Arthur was about to go back inside and look for Matthew, until he saw the blonde boy bounding through the doors to meet him.
"Where were you? You look like you've been running." Asked the thick-eye browed boy.
"Sorry! I had to quickly check something. I didn't think it would take that long." Huffed Matthew as he caught his breath. "Anyways, you ready to go?"
"Yeah."
It took the pair only about a half hour to walk the distance from the school to the neighborhood, but in that time Arthur just might have made his first true friend in America. It turned out that Matthew wasn't really all that shy once you got to know him. He enjoyed videogames, especially RPGs, watching 'Who's Line Is It Anyway?' playing the Saxophone, and actually was pretty decent at math and science.
"My older brother is way better at it than me though." He said as they turned the corner by the fire station. "I just learned everything I needed to know about math from him."
In turn for Matthew telling all of this to Arthur, he too did the same. The British boy expressed his passion for Unicorns and Faeries to the Canadian, and how he enjoyed reading books, or, more specifically, Fantasy and Classic Literature.
"Wow, you really are the most British person I have ever met." Laughed Matthew as Arthur was elaborating on the true complexity of Shakespeare's plays.
"Well, I suppose. It's my favorite place in the whole world." He reminisced.
"Oh, do you drink tea?" Asked the purple-eyed boy. Arthur beamed.
"What self-deserving English gentleman doesn't?" Matthew chuckled.
"True enough, so which one's your house?" He asked. Arthur hadn't even realized that they were at their destination already, and had to look around before he could pick out the correct house.
"Oh, it's that one." He pointed to their right, at a charming two-story red-brick home. Matthew smiled to himself.
"I knew it." Arthur looked at him inquisitively.
"What do you mean?"
"We saw that the for-sale sign had been brought down."
"Oh… and the moving vans too?"
"No, your furniture and stuff probably arrived later right? Since it had to be shipped over-seas."
"Well, yeah. But where you then?"
"My family and I went for vacation in Quebec to visit family. We only came back a few days before school started."
"Oh I see!"
"But yeah, my house is the one right next to yours."
"Wow, awesome!" Arthur beamed. "I have never had next-door neighbors before! You know, living in the country and all." Matthew smiled.
"Well, I will make sure we are the friendliest neighbors you'll ever have." He said as he walked onto his front porch to the front door. "Oh," He added. "I will also try to make sure the noise is kept down." Arthur smiled.
"Yeah, sure, thanks." He responded.
Wait… what noise?
Several hours later, while Arthur was taking a shot at his math problems, he knew exactly the noise Matthew had been talking about. I thought he said he'd TRY to keep it down, he thought to himself. Although now it seems like he couldn't give any less of a fuck…
For the past half hour, all Arthur was able to hear was the sound of his impatient fingers tapping the surface of his desk, and the blasting music coming from next door at the Williams' household. What's worse, it was coming from the bedroom directly across the yard from his, and the window was open. Arthur had tried everything in his power to dull the noise without disturbing Matthew, but not even a closed window or his own music could shield him from the Nickelback songs that were blasting to kingdom come. Arthur was nearly at his wit's end.
Until, suddenly, the music stopped.
The blonde boy looked over to his window, which was closed and had the curtains drawn in a futile attempt at keeping the sound out. Was it over? Could he finally get back to trying his damndest at remembering how to factor?
Much to his dismay, though, a new band had begun blasting through the speakers.
He just stopped to switch CD's? Arthur mentally swore, stomped over to the window, and drew back the curtains to see if Matt was within earshot. Indeed, there he was, wandering around his room aimlessly.
Seriously, does he need a soundtrack while he's being a lazy arse? Arthur thought to himself. He opened his window.
"Matthew!" He hollered towards the opposing house. No response. "MATTHEW! ...MATTHEW WILLIAMS!" He yelled as loud as he could over the blaring music.
"I DON'T THINK YOU'LL GET MY ATTENTION IF YOU KEEP YELLING THE WRONG NAME!" Came the reply.
Arthur was confused, what did Matthew mean? The music turned off, and the blonde boy in the other house looked out of his opened window. Only, it was the wrong blonde boy. He still resembled Matthew in many ways, but there were minor differences. Rather than his hair being smooth and wavy, it was short, choppy, and most of all, terribly messy, with a single stray hair seeming to defy gravity at the very front. In addition, his eyes were different. He wore similar glasses, but behind them, instead of the violet purple that Matthew possessed, there was bright sky blue.
"You're… the guy from earlier today?" Asked the Brit, his mind spinning.
"Why so surprised? I do live here you know." Replied the stranger.
"B-but… this is Matthew's house…"
"Yeah, it is, but I live here too."
"You live there too…" The other boy grinned.
"Glad to see you've accepted my existence. Truly, it makes me feel a lot better." He joked. "But in all seriousness, Matthew is my brother. My twin, to be exact. I'm Alfred, Alfred Jones." Suddenly everything fell into place for Arthur. He did mention a brother, didn't he?
"A pleasure…" He responded somewhat sarcastically. "I'm Arthur Kirkland. And you mean your fraternal twin, right?"
"My what?"
"You guys aren't identical."
"Yeah, and…?" Arthur mentally facepalmed himself.
"Just… never mind."
"Okay. So what is it you needed from Matthew? You want me to go get him?" He asked. The British teen shook his head.
"No, actually, it actually was you that I needed. Well, I thought I needed Matthew, but then it turns out it was you, and… just, ugh…" Alfred laughed.
"I get it, go on."
"I was just going to ask that you turn your music down."
"Oh! Yeah, sorry about that. It just helps me concentrate." How in the world could it possibly do THAT?
"It's fine, just keep it down and that'd be great. I'm just really trying to figure out my algebra homework right now, and I need peace and quiet." Alfred's cerulean eyes lit up.
"Do you need help? I'm REALLY good at math!" He exclaimed. Arthur was taken aback at the surge of excitement from the American boy, and was about to refuse for fear of his headache becoming worse, until he recalled what Matthew had told him about Alfred's affinity for mathematics.
He taught you everything you know, hmm?
"Fine." He replied. Alfred looked almost as if he were going to explode.
"This is so epic! I'll be over before you can say Christopher Reeve!" Arthur was about to stop him and say that they could simply do it from their windows, but it was no use, the blue-eyed boy could already be heard stomping down the stairs. Arthur sighed to himself.
What is this kid on that gives him so much energy?
Before he even had time to go and look up who that Christopher Reeves guy was, he could hear the doorbell ring from downstairs. He hollered down to his parents that it was for him, but by the time he got down the stairwell, it appeared someone else had already answered.
"Who're you?" Asked Peter, who, when put next to Alfred, stood barely up to his stomach.
"I'm Alfred; I've come to see Arthur."
"You're a friend of Arthur's?" The 10-year-old asked.
"I suppose so, yeah."
"Lies!" The tiny boy exclaimed. "Arthur has no friends!" Said boy quickly intervened, pushing his little brother out of the way.
"Enough Peter! You are quite annoying even without having to open your mouth!" Alfred chuckled at this. The young Brit huffed, obviously disappointed, and stomped back into the living room. "Sorry about him," Apologized Arthur. "I'm almost certain something is wrong with him, but the tests keep coming back negative." Alfred couldn't help but smile.
"Heh, that's fine. I like him, he's cute. Anyways, shall we?"
Surprisingly, they were able to get the homework done within an hour.
"Amazing… and you didn't even give me the answers." Mumbled Arthur in awe. Alfred chuckled.
"Course not, that'd defeat the purpose of me teaching you." He replied. "The purpose is to make it so you can do the math without me always havin' to be next to you, not to just give you the answers and let you slide by easily." Arthur nodded in approval. "Speaking of which," Said Alfred. "Do you remember the formulas I gave you? You can always have them in your notes to look back on, but it's better to also memorize them as time goes on, so you can do the problems faster."
"Yeah, and I'll try… but I can't make any promises." Alfred smiled, and got up from his spot on Arthur's bedroom floor.
"Just remember: F.O.I.L. Front, outside, inside, last. Okay?" The Brit nodded, and they made their way back downstairs to the front door.
"Well, I hope you get them all right." Said Alfred as he put his shoes on. Arthur gaped at him.
"You mean you didn't check to make sure I got the problems correct?" The American laughed.
"I'm just kidding! Trust me, if you get one point marked off tomorrow, I will personally go and buy you dinner!"
"Fine. Deal." Said Arthur bluntly.
"Huh?"
"I need tutoring in math, and you…"
"I get bored easily."
"Okay, I need tutoring, and you need something to pass the time, so how about it? Same time tomorrow?" Alfred grinned.
"Alright then, it's a deal!" He replied, and pulled Arthur into bear hug. This took the green-eyed boy by surprise, and he hardly had time to hug the taller boy before he saw him bound down the porch steps and jump over the dividing hedge into the blackness of the late summer night.