Arthur closed the door of his locker, jamming the lock shut tightly. With his books piled in his arms, he made his way down the hallway. There were so many people just standing in the hallways. Did people always do that at school? Shouldn't they be getting ready ready for class?

The first class on Arthur's schedule was English. That's great, one of his favourite subjects! He followed the room numbers down one of the halls until he found the room matching the number on his schedule. Everyone was giving him the oddest looks. He looked down at his clothing. They couldn't be that bad, could they?

Maybe it was something else. He didn't think he looked like any celebrity. There would probably have been a different reaction if that were the case. His eyebrows? Alfred made fun of him for his bushy eyebrows a lot. Arthur rubbed them slightly as if he had an itch.

Arthur spotted Alfred a bit farther down the hall, he was already laughing with a crowd of people around him. Arthur tried slipping into the classroom without Alfred noticing him, but that plan immediately went down the drain.

"Hey! Hey, Arthur! Come here, dude!" He heard Alfred yell. Arthur sighed, and turned around to join his friend, "Guys, this is my friend, Arthur. We're practically brothers, right Arthur?"

Arthur nodded. It was true. Arthur remembered the night Alfred and his brother, Matthew, had been dropped off at the orphanage where they lived. Arthur was six, the boys were only five, their only possessions was a coat, which at the time was too big for Alfred, and a stuffed, toy polar bear. After that, Arthur became their unofficial brother-slash-guardian.

The warning bell rang and everyone scurried away to collect their books. Arthur headed to class without waiting for Arthur, they probably wouldn't have any classes in common, anyway, since they were in different grades.

Arthur was the first in the classroom. Wait, no, that wasn't true. There was someone already sitting in one of the desks near the window. The teacher wasn't there yet either. She was probably getting something ready for the class.

Arthur stood next to the door way for a moment, unsure whether he should sit next to the girl or not. She didn't look very friendly, a sullen expression was plastered across her face as she watched the little nature there was outside, but at the same time, she seemed to be the kind of girl that would be anyone's friend.

He decided he didn't have much of a chance at befriending many of the people in the building and took a seat next to the girl. She didn't acknowledge him at first, but turned her head in her palm slowly to face him.

"Hi, I'm Arthur Kirkland. I'm new here," He said to her a bit shyly.

She didn't reply for a moment, "How can you be New Here if you're also Arthur Kirkland? Is one of those a nickname?" She didn't even say it with a smile. She was serious.

"No, I-I meant that I'm a new student here. My name is Arthur Kirkland."

She stared down at the desk in shame, "Right, I should have known that." She laid her head on her folded arms atop the desk, hitting her forehead in a sort of punishment.

"Wait," Arthur tried to stop her from hitting herself, "What's your name?" He wondered, and it wasn't until he said that, that she stopped hitting herself.

"My name! … My name … is Lotti. Dodd. Lotti Dodd. Right." She told him as she quivered in her seat.

"I like that. It's pretty," He complimented her, without realizing until afterwards, she didn't notice anyway.

"I don't think it is. I don't think my parents did either. I just needed to have a name, and Lotti's what they picked," Lotti said, though she stared at the floor, so it was as if she wasn't even telling Arthur. It was just a fact that was in her mind.

"Well, they probably put more thought into it than mine did. Mine is such a common name."

"Really? I only know one other Arthur..."

"Oh, well, I guess it's not too common..."

"Do you get on with your parents well?"

"No," Arthur sighed, he looked down at his shoes with a sudden fascination with his shoelaces, "They abandoned me at an orphanage when I was a baby."

"At least they loved you enough to do that much. They could have left you to die in an alley. Or something like that."

"It might have been a bit more merciful. If I died. Maybe someone would have even found me and kept me, it's not like I would have remembered any pain. I was just a baby."

"But then who would have looked out for your friends? Your brothers," She said.

"Alfred and Matt? They would be fine. They've got each- Wait, how did you know about them?"

"They told me."

"They? When did you meet Alfred and Matt?"

"I meant-" She was about to tell him, but cut herself off when a small crowd began to flow into the room and fill up the seats around them. Arthur didn't try bothering her about it, he figured she was probably very shy with lots of people around.

He pulled his English binder from the pile of books on his desk, then the book he was reading at that time. He pulled out the bookmark and began reading where he left off. After a minute he noticed a ball of paper bounce off Lotti's hair and into his lap. He glanced up in the direction it came from just in time to see another being launched in their direction at Lotti.

The boy tossing the crumpled paper at her was albino and had a mischievous look in his blood red eyes. There were a few giggling and smirking as he bombed Lotti with paper. One had shoulder length blonde hair, then there was a pair of boys that looked almost like twins, except the curls in their hair were on opposite sides, but they didn't seem too interested. Another boy with grey-blonde hair was smiling, a brown haired and tanned boy was smiling as well, but he didn't seem completely happy with the actions of his friend. Then there was a blonde boy with his hair slicked back who obviously didn't like what was happening, but didn't say anything.

"Who is that? That's throwing the paper?" Arthur asked Lotti curiously as he watched the albino crumple up another unused paper.

"It's Gilbert Beilschmidt," Lotti replied without even looking away from her empty desktop, "The blonde is his brother, Ludwig. The one with the girly hair is Francis. The tanned boy is Antonio. The grey-ish haired one is Ivan. The ones with curls in their hair are Romano and Feliciano. I actually like Feliciano, he's nice to me sometimes, but I think he's a little scared of me. But I think a lot of other people are..."

"Why would they be scared of you? I think you're rather nice."

"I punched Gilbert two years ago."

"Oh."

"Yeah, he pushed me at the wrong time in grade nine. He still bothers me, but not as much." Lotti began piling the paper balls into a pyramid on her desk. It was rather large already, Arthur noticed.

Another ball flew over Arthur's head, he stood up suddenly and pivoted to face the group of boys behind him.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked simply, it was the first thing to come to his mind.

"What's it look like, idiot?" Gilbert crumpled up another paper as he laughed at Arthur.

"Well, it looks like you're being mean!"

"Ooooh, and I care sooo much about being nice to her."

"It's not like you have to be either to her. You could just leave her alone."

"Why would I do that? This is more fun!"

"Then why not play catch with one of your mates. I'm sure it's a lot more fun when the ball gets passed back," Arthur said to him as if he were a child, then sat back in his seat.

The teacher rushed in at that very moment just before the bell rang. Arthur placed his bookmark in between the pages and awaited the teacher's instructions.

Lotti picked one of the paper balls from the middle of her pyramid, making it topple over and spread across her desk, onto the floor. She produced a red pen from her bag, smoothed out the paper and scribbled something across it's surface. She stealthily slid it across the tops of their desks until it was sitting in front of Arthur.

Thank you, it read. Arthur picked up one of his own pens and wrote You're welcome, then passed it back to her. She smiled shyly at him, then turned her attention back to the teacher.

When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of first period, everyone rushed for the door while Lotti and Arthur were still collecting their things.

"What class do you have?" Lotti asked. Arthur looked down at his schedule.

"Uhm ... Programming," Arthur took a minute to figure out which was the second class.

"I thought you would! I have it, too."

"Good, I have a friend there, too! I hope Alfred got into the class, too."

"He probably did. Actually, he's probably in the same class as us. Barely anyone is interested in programming here, so all the classes are smushed together."

"Oh, good, I can see how he and Matt are doing, then." They turned to head for the door. Arthur thought everyone had vacated the classroom, but there was still one student left. Ludwig Beilschmidt.

"Uhm … Lotti, I'm sorry about Gilbert's behavior earlier," He told her.

She didn't reply for a moment, "I know you are."

"You're sorry?" Arthur said, absolutely stunned by his classmate.

"Y... Yes..."

"But you wouldn't stop him? He's your brother, or so I'm told. You should have some influence."

"You would think so, but Gilbert's weird like that..."

"I don't care it's still not acceptable. Come on Lotti." Arthur said to Ludwig, then dragged Lotti out of the classroom.

She led him silently to the programming classroom. There was barely anyone in the room. They took two of the computers near the window where Lotti insisted on sitting. Arthur was relieved to see Alfred rush into the room a few minutes after their arrival. He spotted Arthur and took the computer next to him.

"Sweet, we get a class together after all!" Alfred said as he turned on his computer, "This is gonna be great, dude!"

"Well, it'll definitely be a nice change from the idiots in our grade," Arthur nodded.

"...Our?"

"Yes, mine and Lotti's," Arthur gestured to Lotti who was quietly hunched over in her chair.

"Wow, you made a friend, Arthur! I'm-"

"You're Alfred, I know. Arthur told me about you. And … Mattie."

"Awe, did you miss us that much, Arthur? You had to start rambling about us? Not that that would be boring, no way."

"He didn't. He was occupied elsewhere." Lotti was confusing Arthur. He did talk about Alfred and Matthew a little, but he didn't ramble. But she made it sound as though he had been talking about them. A lot. But then it also sounded as though she had been hearing about them while he was doing something else. Maybe while he was defending her from Gilbert.

This girl was weird. No doubt about it.