The French teacher and the English Student.
Arthur jumped out of his bed. He looked around frantically, gasping when he found his alarm clock thrown onto the ground. He was late for the first day back to school. He was late for the first day of Second year, coming back after the long and certainly memorable Summer holidays. Cursing himself, he took off his sea blue pyjamas before putting on a shirt, green sweater vest and his new jeans he'd got specially for the day before running out of his room and downstairs.
His three older brothers and one sister, Allistor, Patrick, Ryan and Ayva watched him run past them. They were annoyed him. Him being late meant they were too and by now they had missed the bus so they'd have to walk. Arthur sighed to himself, it wasn't his fault they were late, if they were more quiet the night before he would've got more sleep!
"Come on you little fecker! We have to go now!" Patrick complained, though Arthur didn't see, he had thrown his two arms in the air with frustration. From the kitchen he could hear them sigh, oh how he wished his oldest brothers would come home from Australia and New Zealand, they could stand up for him. Or would they? They'd probably just join in!
Finally with a kiss for his mother and a wave to his father he was out the door. He strolled a bit back from his older siblings, not being able to catch up as they walked much too fast. They didn't seem to care and Arthur noticed they were actually walking faster than usual. The number one sign that they were annoyed with him. Bored with looking at the backs of his sibling, he decided to look around at the London scenery instead. Not that it was any more exciting but he always did like looking at the medieval church behind the many houses.
Since it was some time in the late 1960's, there wasn't many cars on the road and when nearing the school Arthur saw his friend Alfred and his twin brother Matthew walking towards them. His siblings scoffed seeing 'the stupid American' running towards them. Alfred waved frantically at the elder children but got sighs in return for his effort.
"Hey Arthur! It'd good to see you after so long!" Alfred laughed patting Arthur on the back harshly causing the English boy to fall forward a bit. Arthur tried to smile though looked back to the ground obviously not up for talking. "Oh, okay... Did you hear The Beatles new album? It's really good isn't it?"
Arthur shrugged. And by then Alfred decided to give up. The rest of the way was pure silence and also on entering the school Arthur wasn't up for talking either. When all his books were put away into his new locker -number 19 to by precise- he checked his timetable. First class of the new school year was art; how fun!
Whispers among his fellow classmates said that they were getting a new art teacher, though Arthur knew those rumours were probably fake, or had Ms. Héderváry really gone on maternity leave? He waited anxiously, and kept staring at the door. The young boy beside him looked a bit worried. "Hey, are you, like, okay?"
Arthur turned his head, seeing a young boy, or girl Arthur couldn't tell, his age, probably European, with short blonde hair tied into two tiny ponytails and most of his hair clipped to one side. Arthur was about to reply but the door of the classroom opened and the principal, Mr. Ludwig Beilschmidt, walked in and slammed his books down onto the wooden desk which was on top of a small height.
"Are you all class 2B?" He asks and most shake their head in agreement, including Arthur.
"Vell, sir, some of us are 2E and others are 2F!" The class clown, or want to be class clown, also known as Yong-Soo, said in the most fakest German accent Arthur had ever heard. Ever!
Mr. Beilschmidt blindly ignored him, scoffing at the young Korean who sat directly in front of him. "The reason vhy I am here is because I vould like to introduce you to your new teacher, Mr. Bonnefoy. He is from Paris, France. I hope you vill all be nice to him when he comes and make him zink you are a good class!" He took a breath, "Vhich you are obviously not, Mr. Im.
Yong-Soo laughed out loud throwing his hands behind the two people who sat beside him, both mentioned moved their chairs away, very, very quickly. Just as silence filled the room, the door burst open once again and a young man walked inside. Arthur gasped upon his arrival, he hadn't noticed but his mouth had dropped a little. Arthur was so star struck he hadn't even noticed Mr. Beilschmidt leave or that the new teacher had actually begun the class.
"Bonjour, mon petit eleves! It is tres bien to meet you all! I am Mr Bonnefoy... but if you require anything you can just call me Francis or 'big brother' if you prefer!" He smiled and Arthur hadn't ever seen anyone in London with a smile as bright as that one, well maybe his father was an exception when he saw the Christmas dinner but the one Mr. Bonnefoy had was... flawless.
"Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get to know your names, I'll go around the classroom and you can tell me a bit about yourselves then!" Arthur hadn't ever seen the shade of blonde that Francis' hair was, it was nothing like his messy sandy brown hair, it was smooth and it looked incredibly silky. When the teacher turned he caught Arthurs eyes. Pale, limey green meet a magnificent shad of oceanic blue, it was almost as blue as the seas off of Greece. Arthur blushed as Francis chuckled waving at the young teen.
When it finally came the time for Arthur to speak, he wasn't any more interesting than the rest, well he had found out the person beside him was in fact a boy from Poland, and that he had a younger sister and brother.
"My name is Arthur Kirkland," Kirkland, the name caused a few whispers, "I'm originally from London, and I have five older brothers and one younger, I also have an older sister."
Francis gasped, "That is seven siblings? Eight including you! Oh, mon Dieu, your parents must have been busy!"
Arthur blushed as a roar of laughter filled the classroom. How dare he say that! He was so embarrassed. That stupid frog! The sound of a chair crashing to the ground made heads turn and the laughing ceased when all noticed that tears dripped down the boys face.
"How can you say that you bloody frog?! You don't know how much I've been through, I don't need you're bloody insults on top of that! Just go back to France you wanker!" Arthur screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to at least scare the Frenchman. He succeeded, kind of, as Francis stepped back a bit in pure surprise.
"Um, mon lapin, I didn't mean to cause such harm..." He went to walk over to the crying boy, but Arthur pushed him away. "How can you say that about someone else when you don't even know their background? Just give me some time... ALONE!"
With that he stormed out of the class causing many children to watch in horror as the teacher had no way to continue the class. Francis was shocked with the boys behaviour. Had he really gone through that much to act that way toward a teacher? And it wasn't really an insult, it was the truth. Obviously if you have eight children you're going to have to be busy, no?
In the bathrooms, Arthur was sobbing to himself. This was not how he planned on spending his first day, let alone his first class. Talking about his family was a touchy subject for the young Brit. First his oldest brother, Jett, eloped to Australia at the age of eighteen to marry a girl he'd just met, needless to say, they were still married and they even had a daughter that was about the same age as Arthur youngest brother, Peter (Peter is eight in this, just saying!). Secondly, there was rumours going around that his older brothers, Patrick and Allistor, were having an affair together. Arthur could confirm that. Let's just say he say more than he should've one night when he was going to the bathroom. Anyway, that put an extremely bad name on the Kirkland clan and second oldest, Christop changed his last name and packed off to New Zealand.
Lastly, though these were really false accusations, said that only daughter, Ayva Kirkland, was pregnant with a much older man. Ayva, who was fifteen at the time, but is now sixteen like twin Patrick, nearly cried her eyes out telling Arthur and her parents it wasn't true, Arthur was surprised that she didn't faint over how much she actually cried.
His family was well known throughout the school as well. Despite the rumours his brothers and sister were talk of the school, in terms of good looks, it seemed they were all good looking but him. On top of that Allistor, Ryan and Patrick were a part of the school's rugby team, which made them more popular amongst all the wailing love sick girls of the school.
He sighed resting his head on his knees. Where was Alfred when you needed him?
Though Arthur didn't think he could, he actually got through the rest of the day without bumping into the frog, as he now called him. He took the bus with his sibling home, and as he didn't get much homework he went out to play soccer after. Though his sibling were extremely good at rugby most didn't realise that Arthur was quite the soccer player. They boys on his team were lucky to have him as when being bullied by his siblings he storm outside to kick around the ball, this made him quite skilled as he was bullied nearly every day.
The next day he didn't have art, nor the next. On Thursday afternoon he strolled in the room and sat in his usual place waiting for his double class to start. Francis walked in and his attention was immediately drawn to the calm young boy who sat in front of him now wearing glasses, his sketch pad out and ready to get going. Unknowingly Francis was staring at the boy. He was so interesting the man decided.
Well into the class they were nearly finished their first assignment- to draw a shoe. Arthur was quite proud of his if he was to be honest. Others had actually said it was very good, and that made him feel happier than he was the other class. Francis had noticed this when he looked up from his French magazine. Arthur actually looked happy. Francis figured that he was indeed a very troubled youngster who hardly got praise.
When they were all finished Francis walked around inspecting them. Nothing good from what he could see, and as he got closer to Arthur he had to say he felt a bit excited. Finally taking a deep breath he turned and looked at the boy's shoe. It was magnificent, he could've gasped out loud but he kept calm.
"Terrible... You 'ave no talent at all!" Francis said and the class fell silent. Arthur was angry at the frog once again though tried not to do or say anything but instead look cool. "Do you call zhat a shoe? You must be joking me!"
"Hey don't jump to conclusions you-" He was about to say frog but Francis put a finger to the youngsters mouth. "Non, non, non, you will not say zhat to you teacher! Do it again tonight!"
And with that the bell rang to signal the end of the day and Francis smirked and walked off. Arthur was nearly going to cry again or even burn the building down on top of that useless git. He took a deep breath. He couldn't let this happen again he had to show Francis he was a good student!
Though it kept happening, Francis never praised him, he only ever said the others were good. Arthur was so confused he was trying to be a good student. After four long weeks, Francis finally revealed his intentions to the young boy.
"Arthur you have to stay back after school tomorrow, please. I'm going to give you private lessons." Arthur looked at Francis in disbelief, though the Frenchman seemed serious. "Why? I can't be worse than any of the others in this bloody class. Why me?"
"Oh, non, don't be comparing yourself! You are worse than all of them, mon lapin!" Francis laughed. Arthur clenched his fists at his side. "Fine! I'll go you stupid git!"
"Good! I hope to see you soon then!" He smiled ruffling the boys hair. Arthur screeched in disgust. "What in God's name do you think you're doing get off me!"
"Oh, pardon moi!" Francis said but the English boy had already stormed out of the room.
"Arthur Kirkland... You are a very interesting and beautiful young boy..."
Hello! Loveless4life here! I got bored and starting thinking of this in my head one night. I hope you all like. I know it's a bit slow at the start but once I get into it we'll be flying ahead!
For those of you who aren't Irish, or even in England I think they use it, 'fecker' is an offensive term we use. Not all the time but sometimes like for example, 'for feck sake!". We could use that if we drop something. Just saying in case you didn't know.
Anyways hope you like so far, and please review,
Loveless4life!
