Alfred's POV

Everything was perfect in Elementary school. No one bothered with relationships. Our biggest concern was what was on the lunch menu or the newest Pokémon episode. It's the truth, simple, basic, and unrefined. It never needed to be refined anyway. We were all true and refined as crystal when it came to our outlooks on life.

As middle and high school came about, we slowly found puberty and explored how far our emotions would take us. Some of us started to fall as victims to an early adulthood, mistakes that children should never make. Still, we all had each other and that's what mattered. That is what kept all of us from horrible endings during a time that you couldn't pay me all of the money in the world to go back to.

I thought those horrible endings would always stay away.

It was freshman year that I realized I was horribly mistaken.

Arthur's POV

This year is it. Arthur thought, moving about his room with pure excitement. He bounded through his closet, picking up his typical sweater vest and bow tie. They were perfectly pleated, organized, despite the scattered mind of the British boy. He smiled and didn't feel as scared as he should for starting Junior year. Maybe, he thought, It's because I finally have friends to start the year with? He just kept his face beaming as the fairies of his reality, and everyone else's fantasy, helped him with his hair.

After feeling as ready as ever, he grabbed his notebook and started sliding down the railing of the enormous, loud house.

"Arthur!" He heard from below. "Let's go before I turn your insides into pudding!" The blonde pulled a weird facial expression, but was used to the quirks that came with his sister, Carlin. She was waiting at the bottom of the mahogany staircase, her red hair entangled with a bleach blonde in designer clothes. Their embrace was extremely intimate, almost perverse to the fifteen year old.

"Bonjour, Arthur." The French man parted his embrace just partially to greet the younger male.

"Good morning, Francis." Arthur smiled at his frenemy, a person of friendship but also demise. Arthur felt his feelings were just. The man is dating his sister after all. He has to remain alert around the passionate Frenchie.

The three drove in laughs and happiness, a perfect and typical morning. Arthur realized he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy their company. As they made their commute to the other side of the city, Arthur dug through his backpack for a small, worn, leather notebook. This book he thought, has been my truest of companions since I moved here last year. He started to narrate in his mind, smiling as he flipped through the pages. When I came to New York from Britain, I thought I would never make any friends. I was happily mistaken as I was swept into the arms of some of the weirdest, dramatic people I had ever met.

He continued this narration, walking in a daze from homeroom to his first two classes. Both of them didn't have any of his friends, unsurprisingly. This school was decently sized, and Arthur's schedule was also messed up slightly from the switch in curriculum. Either way, he saw this as an excuse to continue walking about in his mind. He couldn't wait to see how they had grown. Sure, they tried to meet up during the break, but most of them had summer assignments, training for sports, or just lived across the city. Just the week before school started, he saw his friend Kiku, the only person to actually live within biking distance to him, and the one he depended on for sanity after being trapped in a crowded British household.

The two sat and talked over lunch as Arthur did his trademark flip through the pages of his notebook, somehow gaining something through that. Kiku laughed faintly, looking to his friend.

"What's that face supposed to mean?" Arthur smiled.

"You're zoning out again." Kiku met Arthur's green eyes, a delicate smile playing on his lips.

"Aren't I always?" Arthur relaxed, placing the book protectively on his lap.

"Yes, but it's funny. It is like you are switching between worlds with that journal in hand." Kiku muttered, trying to remain respectful while getting his point across.

"I use it to bring myself back down to reality."

"And you also keep tabs on everyone." Kiku muttered, just loud enough for it to be more than a whisper.

"Who told you that?" Arthur clasped his hand over his mouth, angry for admitting it.

"No one needed to. I watch how you write about everyone. It's like a diary without your own emotions in it."

"I just think that everyone would want to watch as they grow." Arthur muttered, feeling guilty.

"Uh huh," Kiku smiled, returning to his sushi.

"So what if I keep tabs? So what if I focus on everything?" Arthur murmured to himself, looking around the crowded lunch tables. The normally intimidating scene didn't scare him today as he went to sit down in the spot that his friends had all picked out at orientation. He kept his eyes down to his notes from his first two classes, allowing himself to zone out in his drawings and writings of worlds so far away from New York.

"Hey, you're kind of in my spot." Arthur looked up hesitatingly at the tall, blonde, and beautiful jock that stood before him, his varsity jacket allowing him to blend in the crowd of red and gold. He admitted he felt the slightest fear looking at the well-built boy, despite knowing him since birth.

"Oh am I?" Arthur smiled, continuing to sip tea from a travel mug. "Well, I'm sorry, sir, but this seat is reserved especially for a friend of mine." Arthur stood up, the tip of his disheveled blonde hair meeting the top of the boy's sapphire eyes. "Funny, you look a lot like him." The boy smiled.

"Oh, well that must be pure coincidence." He laughed, looking around at the slowly approaching American football players.

"Hey, are you ready to go, Jones?" a larger, older boy with stubble surrounding his face approached the two, feeling surprise as he looked down with a smirk at the bow tied, British gentleman.

"Um, uh" The boy looked back to Arthur, a sorry smile spreading across his lips. "Yeah," He waved to the boy as he ran away with the rest of the team.

"Yeah, coincidence." Arthur sighed with a feeling of betrayal. "Bye, Alfred."