Hello.
My name is Arthur Darius Kirkland. I'm seventeen years old, and live in a small town in Virginia called Austinville.
When I say small town, I mean it literally, of course. The population is under 1,000, and we have a single school building for every grade, our small population not requiring anything bigger. Each grade level only has one class, so as you can imagine everyone who lived in this town was quite familiar with one another.
It's a close knit community, you can't go anywhere without seeing someone you don't know, unless they've just arrived or are simply passing through on their way to Marion, or just heading out of the state.
But, like with every small town, behind closed doors there were secrets hidden from the rest of us. I was one of the few who discovered what this terrible secret was before everyone else, but before I could do anything, the secret had reveled itself, and it was far too late for me to act on my feelings.
Before moving to America, I had lived in London with my five brothers and parents. After a traffic accident ridding us of our mother, our father took us and left the United Kingdom, desiring a fresh start in America, specifically a rural town that was barely on the map.
At first, I had been angry with him. It was such a drastic change from London, and I was still in grieving for my lost mother, making the move even harder.
Now, I'm so thankful for being placed in this town, where I still reside, finishing up my last year of high school before returning to England to attend college there. I had been planning on going to college in America ever since moving here, but now it was my turn for a fresh start, I simply had to leave this town.
Everyone else in my class were planning on attending a college near here, and were disappointed when they learned I wouldn't be with them anymore, but they had told me they understood.
I had promised that I'd never forget any of them, or any of the memories we all shared. They would stay with me for the rest of my life, the brightest and darkest moments occurring in Austinville, Virginia. I would probably never return to said place, but if I did, I was positive that I'd be greeted by the same faces from all those years ago, but some missing.
It's been three and a half years since I've came here, and in that time it became my home. I had more friends then I'd ever dreamed about having back in London. There was Kiku, who I always partnered with for projects, because our intelligence was on the same level, making getting along easy for both of us, his brother Yao, who was one of the only sane classmates I had, and so many others. I won't even get started on Francis Bonnefoy, who was a French pervert and—and I hate to refer to him as this, but this last year has proved it more than ever—a true friend.
There was one person, though, who made such a grand impact on my life. He had taken me under his wing on my first day at school, declaring that he was my new (and first) best friend. I was introduced to all of my other friends by him, and he made my school days fun.
He was my best friend, protector from the older boys who had taken to picking on me, the person I walked down the dirt roads with at night eating ice cream we bought from the corner store, the one person who was ever able to get me to fully open up and talk about my mom, and my boyfriend.
He was an amazing person. He was kind, and funny, and athletic, the kind of person who would risk themselves for a kitten trapped in a tree. He was the most popular person in the school, always the light of the party and usually completely surrounded at school. He would be there for anyone in need, no matter what their issue was. People relied on him, and he never let them down. Not only was he impossibly sweet, he was also incredibly handsome. I wasn't the only one who noticed this, girls in our and other grade levels obviously were attracted to him, and quite a few males as well. He was never good at sensing the atmosphere, so he had just smiled and laughed when girls were hanging all over him, never being able to notice their intense longing for him. At first I was jealous, but I got used to it, because I knew he'd never cheat on me. That was just how he was.
He was also a liar. He was able to flawlessly hide unwanted emotions from his face. He was full of secrets that he never wanted anyone to learn of, lest they think differently of him. He was almost constantly sad, or scared. He was constantly ashamed of himself.
This is the story of Alfred Freedom Jones, a fragile soul in the hands of fate.
His story is not a happy one, and its ending is not a good one. Turn back now if you no longer wish to hear, I understand, but I'd love it if you stayed to listen about his amazing story.
Now, I'll start from the very beginning, my first day at Austinville Learning Center.
Prologue, END.
Hello, my dear readers. The world commitment is obviously not in my dictionary because I can't seem to be able to work on one fic at a time.
Austinville is a real place, I looked it up. Things about this town will be inaccurate, though, because 1. I don't live there, and 2. They have no website so I really can't tell what's there and Google maps sucks. From what I'm able to see, though, there's no Austinville schools of any kind, it seems they have to commute to a school that appears to be quite a distance away.
I gave Arthur a middle name. I had to. Darius basically means "To posses good". Well, I think it does unless the site I'm using is trolling me.
I might continue this, I might not, it all depends on the reception I get.
I'd love for you to all stick with this story till the end, and encourage me to keep writing because lack of encouragement makes me lazy :3. Yes, the ending is not happy, but MAYBEEE you'd be able to convince me to write an alternate ending that IS happy. Maybe.
I'm really excited about this though, the next chapter will be in Arthur's POV, as will most of the story, occasionally switching to Alfred's and MAYBE Canada's.
~Ayai
I love reviews, and I hold reviewers very close to my heart. They motivate me to write, soooo, yeah :D