Benedict – Scotland
Conan – Ireland
Dylan – Wales
"Your Majesty, do you think it's finally time for Prince Alfred to get married?"
"How is King Richard doing?"
Princess Amelia sighs. "I'm afraid his condition is getting worse, Your Majesty."
"I see." The Queen nods, caressing each and every picture frame on her bedside table with her fingertips. "I really do think it's the right time to take the royal engagement ring back and have Prince Alfred marry the one who bears half of the crest."
Every morning at school, Arthur Kirkland has to cover his ears from the high-pitched squeals of girls as they wait for the arrival of "His Royal Highness, Prince Alfred Jones", and fights his way just to enter the building. It's as if the prince's life is so damn precious due to the absurd amount of security guards surrounding him once he steps out of his black Benz that a single touch from the fans might be the death of him. Not to mention, every window of the high school building is bullet-proof for extra precautions.
"Why didn't he just study in a more prestigious school than in World U?"
This is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries that no one can answer except for the prince, himself. But he remains silent every time he's asked.
Despite having a cold weather in the afternoon, Arthur swears their uniform is poorly constructed for this type of activity they're having currently– a white dress shirt with an olive neck tie under a mustard-coloured vest and a royal blue blazer. He and his classmates in Algebra want to remove their blazers and roll up their sleeves after their teacher, Mr. Jonas, had them stand outside to form the x-axis of a human Cartesian plane while the y-axis is drawn in chalk.
"The given is 7x+10," he says. "Substitute x with the number you're standing on. Multiply it by 3, subtract 10, and add 2. You are given three minutes to solve and a minute to arrange yourselves along the y-axis. Remember, you are to solve them mentally. If I caught one of you solving in your palm and if the positioning is incorrect, I will make the given a quadratic equation."
Fortunately, Arthur is standing at the centre, making solving mentally easy for him. Those who are standing beyond five and negative five, though, are having a hard time with some of them writing on air just to know what is 45 by three.
One attempts to hide and solve by writing on her palm. And when it's time to arrange themselves in the Cartesian plane, they fail to form a line that is inclined to the right as some goes to the wrong number.
The given is changed to 2x^2+5x-4, and then to 12x^2-3x+5.
Don't get him wrong. Mr. Jonas is an incredible Math teacher. It's just that he is notoriously known to challenge his students by making them solve tricky equations without the aid of a calculator, as well as having a dry sense of humour. As much as Arthur hates it, he is quite grateful of the man's techniques.
At that very moment, the Art students make their way beside the Algebra class, taking the shade with green benches, their teacher explaining they will be making their Impressionism plates. Suddenly, Arthur's female classmates start squealing after seeing the prince among them.
And he's smiling toward their direction.
"Oh my god, he's smiling at me!"
"No, he's definitely looking at me!"
The Englishman rolls his eyes as he positions himself in the seventh unit in the y-axis.
Alfred can't help but to chuckle, seeing as Stephanie Morgan has a hard time solving Mr. Jonas's problems. Earlier that day, they also did the very same activity. Not that he's boasting, but he made it through each problem easily, even if he stood at nine.
"She should've picked zero!" He thinks. Knowing her, Stephanie is your average red-haired captain of the cheerleading squad. While she may not excel that well in academics, she makes do about it in her extra-curricular activities.
"Al, you're acting weird today." Ivan Braginsky slings an arm around the prince and sits cross-legged beside him.
Gilbert Beilschmidt follows Alfred's gaze and snorts, jabbing his arm. "I see why Jones boy is weird. His girlfriend is in that damned Cartesian plane!"
Alfred rolls his eyes, removing Ivan's arm on his shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says and goes back to what he is supposed to do.
Nobody knows about his relationship with Steph, except for his friends. Alfred doesn't want anyone prying about their relationship, being the headlines of every tabloid just because they held hands in public, even if they never do. She, on the other hand, doesn't want the prince's fans to go on a rampage just because "she stole their prince." It's hard to be in a secret relationship because they have to be watchful for every move they do. And they can never do want typical couples do.
The whole village celebrates as the news spread about the future Queen of Spades being found. Alice, herself, still cannot believe that she would be ruling the land side by side with her beloved. Who would've thought that she is hailed from a poor family?
Sweet and charming young Alice, soon their ruler-
"Arthur Kirkland!"
Arthur groans internally as he hears his name being called by his Physics teacher for the fourth time this week. There in front of him stands Mrs. Evans, her arms akimbo as she stares at him.
"Would you mind telling us Archimedes's principle?"
Standing up, although with a bit of hesitation, he answers without faltering, "Archimedes's principle states that any object partly or wholly submerged in a fluid is buoyed up by a force called Buoyant Force, which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaces by the object."
Mrs. Evans nods, contented, and allows him to sit down.
"Physics is easy once you understood its concept." Arthur writes that on his notebook, followed by a quick doodle of Archimedes having his Eureka moment in the iconic bath tub. Beside it is the ρgv formula of Buoyant Force. He is about to continue to where he left his story but found out he has lost his interest.
Now that his mood in continuing the story is ruined, Arthur switches his story notebook to his Physics notebook, though there isn't much need to open it since he already has the sufficient notes to understand fully the principle.
Class ends and, as always, Mrs. Evans is the first to leave. No other students can be as excited as her in going home. Well, that's what Arthur would like to think as he arranges his bag. The room is almost empty by now, save for the group of girls who don't have the time (or don't seem to have taken a consideration of) going to the bathroom to powder their noses and talk about periods and "that hot guy in English class". There's also this confused kid who's asking how the hell you can solve for that damned Buoyant Force. For starters, the formula can be simplified to just mg.
It is, after all, force.
"Arthur!"
"Oh my god." Arthur has just finished packing his things and is ready to leave the room when Feliks, his Polish friend who is never outdated in school news and gossips, enters. In his hand is what seems like a bottled strawberry juice.
Well, it has to be pink. It's Feliks.
"I bought you one of these," he says, waving the plastic bottle in front of the Englishman. Arthur looks at Feliks unsurprised. "Oh, come on, you old man! This has to be, like, the in drink and you're having your first for free! Nothing is free these days, so you better grab the opportunity."
Arthur's heard (and seen) this drink everywhere he goes. The school canteen only has a limited stock every day. If one manages to buy, he is considered lucky, even if it is available in convenience stores. But in Arthur's case, he is extra lucky since it's free.
"Thanks, I guess." Arthur gives Feliks a small smile and accepts the bottle, albeit quite hesitantly. Feliks, as if making him try drinking the juice as his personal goal, sprints out of the classroom to join his boyfriend? Best friend?
He is never the one who likes following trends because who cares if he drinks Minute Maid instead of this weird pink contraption? Arthur looks at the bottle warily and finally opens it as he goes outside of the room.
It tastes like strawberry-flavored medicine children drink when they have fever.
"They're crazy for this?" Arthur thinks, almost tempted to throw the bottle away. It's a good thing he isn't the one who wasted their single penny on this shit or else he might regret it for the entire day.
He wishes that the only flavor that tastes like medicine is strawberry.
Arthur is debating whether or not to throw the still-full bottle that he fails to notice the person walking toward him, accidentally spilling the juice all over the man's blazer.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" He pulls out his white handkerchief (he is never without one) from his pocket and tries to wipe the juice. If he isn't mistaken, people are starting to gather to watch what the hell is happening… and he quite certain Feliks is one of them.
"Just leave it."
But Arthur doesn't listen.
The man clicks his tongue and removes his blazer instead, throwing it on the ground. "I said leave it!" He yells. "I will just buy a new one."
Arthur casts a glance at the soiled blazer, and then to the man which makes him gasp but frowns.
"Haven't you heard of the word 'laundry'? Or are you too rich that you just replace everything that's been stained?" He picks the blazer up. "Do you even have the slightest idea how much this cost?"
The whispers of the crowd are gradually getting louder, cameras are pointed at them. But Arthur Kirkland wants Alfred Jones to know how valuable a single blazer is. That money does not grow on trees.
But Alfred just smirks. "Nobody has dared to raise their voice against me, so you should be proud of yourself because you're the first," he says. "Well then. Why don't you clean that up for me since you seem so adamant about cleaning that trash up?"
And then he is gone, leaving Arthur dumbfounded with the blazer in his arm.
Elizabeth Kirkland wants a divorce and start a new life. She is tired of working endlessly while her husband, William, stays at home, doing minimal effort. They have four sons, three of which still depend on them. The oldest, Benedict, is in Scotland and already has a wife, and soon a family of his own. Conan and Dylan are in Wales, studying for college. The youngest, Arthur, soon has to go for college as well by the end of the school year, and he goes to an expensive private school in England. They have bills to pay, and her salary just isn't enough to sustain what the family needs.
Every day, she would arrive home dead tired from her work as a volunteer nurse at a nearby clinic, and sees her husband lounging at the sofa while watching BBC News. She would then head to the kitchen and prepare a cup of tea. After which, she would head at the veranda to clear her mind.
That is what Arthur sees when he gets in to their house, as well as a high stack of bills at the dining table. Clearly, they just had a fight.
"Mum," he says, sitting across her. "Are you going to continue with the divorce?"
Elizabeth sighs and takes a sip on her tea while rubbing her temples. "Your dad still refuses to find a job to help me with the expenses. And just now, I found out he agreed to be the guarantor of his friend! The problem with him is that he minds the problems of others too much that he forgets he has his own. How does he expect to pay the debts of his friend?"
Arthur frowns. He knows about their current status; they really have nothing for now. It's just that it isn't obvious since he attends World U and they live in the house oh his late grandmother. He hates how he has to wait for months to buy what he wants, and he also hates how he's the only one among his siblings who feels the burden. But Arthur doesn't want to let his brothers know their parents are going to separate because of money, even if they deserve to know what's happening in England.
"Don't worry. I'll find a way as soon as I graduate."
A/N: I've decided to rewrite the whole story because I feel like the first one is shit. The other reason for the delay of update is because aside from school, I got sick a few days before Christmas. And I'm sorry for the amount of Math and Science ; w ; Hopefully, this will be the last time.
Their uniforms are just in GakuHeta ; 3 ; Unoriginal, I know... just like the whole story.
Hope you like this rewritten one!
