Arthur felt anxiety settle in as he began to understand his situation. He'd spent his entire school life...well, at home. His parents had hired a private tutor, Mr. Honda and Arthur had never set foot in a regular school before this morning. Although he was intelligent for his age, Arthur was not very experienced...in anything. And now, just as his medical conditions began to worsen, his parents had moved to America and decided to enrol Arthur in a normal, public high school.
So that's why Arthur was standing at one end of a crowded, cramped corridor, people hastily pushing their way past him, shouting to their friends, their voices echoing in Arthurs' ears, confusing him and, although he didn't show it, scaring him slightly. Everything was out of focus, a series of dimly coloured blurred dots. Although Arthur was used to it by now, it still pissed him off. He'd been told to wait here be the angry receptionist, who said that someone would come to show Arthur to his lessons. Arthur shifted impatiently. He hated being dependant on others. He hated the pitying tone of voice adults used around him. He hated how he had no clue what to do. He also hated people who were late. Someone roughly pushed past him, shoving him into the wall.
"Bloody wanker!"Arthur hissed under his breath.
"Hey, dude!" A loud, obnoxious voice rang out. Arthur spun round to face the source of the sound: namely, a large, very noisy floating blob. Arthur wondered if this was the person that was meant to show him around. His next sentence cleared that up.
"Dude, I'm, like, meant to show you around!"
Arthur glared at him, still irritated about how late he was. He'd decided that he did not like this guy.
"What's your name?" Arthur asked, somewhat coldly.
"What? Its right here on my name tag...here; next to my hero badge...I spent ages making it...see?"
Arthur gaped in the general direction of the voice, unsure if he was being mocked or not.
"No." He replied bluntly. The other person paused as though thinking, before jokingly saying:
"Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?"
Arthur felt his cheeks heat up with anger and humiliation. He'd normally walk away from this type of ignorant person, but, right now, he was just furious. He wanted to teach this lump a lesson. Determined to show that being partially blind did not make him useless, or give this American twerp a right to scorn him, Arthur fumbled at the air in front of him until he found the persons' upraised hand. Arthur groped awkwardly for a bit before feeling three thin, stick-like things jutting up.
"Three." Arthur forced himself to keep his voice flat and emotionless: he didn't want this idiot to know that he'd gotten to him. Arthur turned away from the blob and hesitantly began to navigate his way through the indistinct crowd. There were less people than before and Arthur, despite the fact that he had never played any form of sports before in his life due to his medical situations, had relatively good spatial awareness. Arthur felt slightly proud of himself, but then he heard the infuriating voice call out from behind him
"You're going the wrong way you know...Math is this way..."
Arthur sighed. Maybe I should stick around, he thought, it won't set a good impression if I turn up late to every lesson...Arthur turned and paused next to the boy, waiting.
"I'm Alfie, by the way!"
"...Arthur."
"Cool! It's nice to meet you!" Alfie said brightly before leading Arthur down the hall.
XXX
Alfies' POV
Seriously, this guy was really grumpy. I mean, sure, I was a little late, but this dude was scowling so bad that you'd think I had murdered his grandmother with a tea cosy. He kept staring right past me like I didn't exist, and I swear that he had been making fun of me when I had asked, as a joke, how many fingers I was holding up. He was really grouchy. And his British accent made everything he said sound really...depressing. Oh well. A hero has to give everyone a chance, right!? But he did seem a bit...vacant, as though he wasn't really here. It creeped me out. Weirdo.
I amble down the corridor, occasionally stopping to talk to my friends. I winked at a group of girls and they all giggled and blushed. That was hardly unusual. Arthur shuffled behind, but to be honest, I didn't pay much attention to him: if I was going to have to spend all day with him, I wanted to talk to my friends at least once. Arthur didn't say anything to anyone, just followed behind me, glaring. Well, I wasn't going to force him to be social or anything. If he was going to be stupid like that, fine. Not my problem.
The school bell rang, piercing as ever. I turned to Arthur and beamed at him: maybe if I was really nice to him, he would stop glowering at everything...No. No reaction whatsoever. Maybe he was naturally grumpy all the time? I felt the grin slide off my face, but I forced myself to pretend to be cheerful.
"Come on! First lesson is math!"
The crowds of people began to began to disperse as everyone headed to lessons. Arthur and I walked down to the stairs that lead to the math room. I kept rambling on about random stuff, deciding that Arthur must just be shy.
"Teach's cool as long as you try your best in class, but he hates it if all you do is talk...so he really hates me. But he's rather decent, you know, as professors go. But you can't really make math fun, can you? So we tend to just..."I kept talking as I walked up the stairs. I heard a massive thump behind me. I turned to see Arthur sprawled on the floor, pulling himself up. It seemed as though he had, somehow, fallen over. His cheeks were flaming and his jaw was set. He looked angry. Really angry. He quickly scrambled up from the floor.
"Stairs?" he asked in a low voice. He sounded really embarrassed, which I could understand. I ran back down the stairs to help him up.
"Hey, Brit dude!? Are you okay?" I asked. I was really confused: did this guy have a mental disorder or something? Why else would you just randomly fall over? Arthur looked at me (or rather, at the spot just above my left shoulder) and murmured:
"Are there stairs there?"
"Um, yeah!? What the hell does that even mean, 'are there stairs there'? They're right here!"
Arthur muttered something under his breath. I didn't hear it, but I could tell that they weren't the nicest things to say. Arthur brushed past me and hesitantly began to go up the stairs, keeping a tight grip on the banister as he did so. The few people who had still been around to see the spectacle drifted off in clusters, most of them laughing about what they'd just seen. Although there weren't that many people, soon the entire school would know about the new British kid with no co-ordination. Gossip spreads like wildfire in this school. Arthur, who was already half a flight of stairs ahead, called down:
"And if you ever call me 'Brit dude' again, I'll bloody kill you."
Now I was really confused. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing something. But I dismissed it. I plastered a big grin on my face and, deciding not to mention what had just happened.
"Okay! I think I'll call you Artie then! Arthur just doesn't sound right, you know? My 'real' name is actually Alfred, but everyone calls me Alfie..."
XXX
