Today was Friday, which left pretty much everyone in a cheerful mood despite the rain outside. Alfred whistled to himself as he drew out a diagram of the Kreb's Cycle on the board. He was in an extra good mood because this weekend he and Matthew were going to visit their mother. It was a long drive, 4 hours to be exact, but it was worth it.
Alfred worried about his mother often. When he was sixteen, his father had contracted a rare type of brain cancer. He had passed on only a few months after being diagnosed. Their family had been strong and pulled through though, with the help of neighbors, aunts, and uncles. Ever since he and Matt had gone to college and then moved out though, Alfred knew his mother was lonely. That was why they tried to see her as often as they could.
Partly why Alfred felt he could relate to Arthur was because when he was a teenager he'd had to deal with his father's death as well. Of course Arthur's situation was a bit worse, seeing as he had no parents at all now, but nonetheless Alfred at least understood a part of what Alfred was going through.
Alfred had dealt with his dad's death a little different then how Arthur was dealing with his mom's death though. Alfred did keep his feeling bottled up, but he hid them behind smiles and laughter. He'd joined football, baseball, basically all the sports. He'd had many friends and been pretty popular. However, one day he had just broke down in his room because it had just been too much. Matthew had found him holding a knife to his wrist. After that Alfred's mother set him up with a therapist, and things had gotten better.
He didn't want that to happen to Arthur. One day, he knew, Arthur was going to have a major break down if they didn't help him now. He hadn't seen Arthur since his breakdown yesterday, but Roderich had told him that Arthur had been better by lunch and was able to make it to his last period.
The bell soon rang and as usual his Sophomores came in, all rowdy and excited for the weekend. Some teachers hated loud and rowdy classrooms, but Alfred totally liked it. He didn't like having his students shut up, silent, and still. Nah, he wanted them to be themselves. Creative, talkative, and just basically happy.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Arthur come into the room as well. He looked much better than yesterday, but perhaps a little tired. It was a little odd, because instead of wearing his usual dark punk band shirts and skinny jeans, he instead wore an over sized green hoodie that matched his eyes, and regular jeans. It made him look a lot younger in Alfred's opinion.
"Hi everyone, isn't it a wonderful Friday?" Alfred greeted his class, finishing the last touches of his chart on the board. "Who has exciting plans for the weekend?"
Several people raised their hands, prattling on about movie dates, parties, and so on.
"What are you doing this weekend Mr. Jones?" Someone asked.
"My brother and I are visiting our mom. She lives awhile away, so we don't get to see her that often." Alfred told them. "It's gonna be awesome! She promised to bake one of her famous blueberry pies for us."
One of Alfred's routines was to chat with his students for a few minutes before doing anything else. He remembered his own school days, and used to hate it when the teachers would just make them all be quiet and get to work. Once they'd had a rather long conversation debating different pie flavors, it was time to get the class started.
"For the first ten minutes I figured y'all could check on your plants. Some of them should start sprouting soon." Alfred instructed. "After that I have this awesome lecture planned over the Kreb's Cycle. Don't worry though, I know how boring it can be, so I'll try to speed through it as long as you all promise to take notes."
As the class got to work with recording their plants, Alfred went over to Arthur, who was even participating today. That meant that he was having a good day, much to Alfred's relief.
"Hi Artie, you're looking a lot better today. Got any exciting plans for the weekend?" He greeted his student.
"Not really," Arthur shrugged, writing something down in his plant recording book. "Just...nothing."
Alfred had at first been excited, thinking that Arthur was actually going to tell him something willingly, but then just smiled. He was close at least.
"Nothing huh? Well I'm sure you'll find something to do."
Just like that, he moved on to go chat with his other students. Alfred had a particularly long conversation with Kiku about the upcoming science fair. You see, Kiku was in the science club. Technically he could have gone far ahead to more advanced science classes, but for some reason the teen had decided to stay in regular biology. Anyway, Kiku was making some awesome robot type thing, which had Alfred very interested.
Because Alfred talked for so long, it ended up being almost a half hour for a supposedly quick plant check. He then moved onto the Kreb's Cycle, which he could tell was boring some of the kids. His eyes wandered towards Arthur during his lecture, and he saw that the teen seemed to be taking notes, which was a first in Arthur's case so far in this class.
"Alright, I've bored you enough. You can have the rest of the block to chill. Study your notes over the weekend, cause I might give you a quiz next Tuesday. Not sure yet, but just in case." Alfred finished up the class, fifteen minutes before the bell.
It was during lunch when things got interesting. There were three lunch periods, first, second, and third. Second lunch also happened to be Alfred's. Usually he'd go across the street to get an italian, but today he decided upon going to the cafeteria on a whim. It was when he was about halfway there though, when he ran into someone unexpectedly.
"Artie, what are you doing out here?"
The teen was sitting on one of the large window sills that showed a clear view of the parking lot, by a couple rows of lockers. He had a notebook out, and seemed to be writing something down.
"Nothing," Arthur answered quickly, shoving the notebook into his bag and tensing up.
"Where are you supposed to be right now dude?" Alfred asked him.
"Nowhere," Arthur replied boredly, leaning back against the wall.
"There's never a nowhere. I'm guessing you have second lunch, right? How come you aren't in the cafeteria? I heard they're serving cake with the main meal today." Alfred told him lightly. Even if he liked to be carefree, he was also a teacher. Student's weren't aloud to just hang out in the hallways, unless it was between classes.
"I don't eat at school," Arthur informed him.
"What? Why not?" Alfred asked, perplexed. Everyone ate in school. It was just the primary place to eat, seeing as you were stuck there for almost seven hours a day.
"I dunno," The teen replied with a shrug. "I usually get lunch after school, on my way home. There's this cafe..." He then trailed off, instantly clamping his mouth shut as if telling his teacher this was a crime.
"That's no good, you shouldn't wait so long to have lunch," Alfred told him with a concerned frown. "Come on, let's both head down to the cafeteria and get something. Besides, you aren't allowed in the hallways during lunch. It's either the cafeteria or the library."
"I'm not going to the cafeteria, and I'm banned from the Library until November." Arthur said.
"Banned from the library? Geez, how'd that happen?" Alfred wondered.
"It wasn't even my fault! It was all Gilbert's doing!" Arthur snapped defensively.
"Okay, okay, calm down." Alfred said. "I'll give you a different choice then. You can go the the cafeteria, or you can stay in a classroom. Mine's open if you want. It'll give you a chance to catch up on more of your work."
"And if I choose neither?" Arthur asked, clearly annoyed.
"Then I can go get Roderich and you can talk about it with him. I hate to be some evil bad guy, since I'm usually a total hero, but since I'm a teacher it's my duty." Alfred answered apologetically.
"Fine, I'll go to your classroom." Arthur huffed.
"Awesome! My doors unlocked, you can head along there and get to work. I'll be there soon, I just gotta get lunch." Alfred told him, before going back to heading towards the lunchroom.
By the time he got his tray of pizza, a clementine, and a large slice of chocolate cake, Alfred made it back to the classroom. Thankfully he saw that Arthur seemed to be working on the stuff in his folder.
"Alfred, hello!" Someone greeted him from behind, before Alfred had barely even entered the classroom. He turned around to see Tino, accompanied by Berwald. Berwald was the woodshop teacher. He was a very skilled with his woodwork, and even sold homemade furnature for pretty cheap. He also happened to have been married to Tino, though they had each kept their own last names.
"Hi guys, what's up?" Alfred greeted them with his usual smile.
"We were wondering if you wanted to have lunch with us, since it's both our break too!" Tino said cheerfully. Alfred noticed that they each held paper bags in their hands, which was most likely their lunch.
"Sure!" Alfred agreed readily. "But let's have it in my room, kay? I've got a student spending his lunchtime here too."
"Alright!" Tino agreed. "Come on Berwald, let's eat here."
"A'right," Berwald agreed, following Tino into the classroom. Berwald may have looked a little touch and intimidating, but he was really a nice guy once you got to know him.
"Guys, this is Arthur. He's a Sophomore so you probably haven't had him Tino, and I don't think you've taken woodshop have you Artie?" Alfred introduced him to the others.
"Hello Arthur, I'm Mr. Väinämöinen! I teach English to Juniors, so you might have me next year!" Tino introduced himself.
"N'd I'm Mr Oxe'nstierna" Berwald added. "I t'ch woodshop."
"Erm, nice to meet you." Arthur said quietly, almost looking shy in Alfred's opinion, which was weird since Arthur never seemed shy. He normally just seemed withdrawn, but willingly so.
For the remainder of lunch, Alfred sat up from with his fellow teacher friends while they ate. Arthur clearly didn't want in on any conversations, so they left him to his work. Alfred caught Arthur looked out the window a few times, seemingly lost in his thoughts. He looked sort of sad. Alfred wished he could read minds so he could tell what that kid was thinking. Truthfully he was terrible at reading moods or the atmosphere, according to his brother anyway.
But to be able to get a view into Arthur Kirkland's mind...
It was something that would probably help a lot.
"It's raining awful hard out there," Alfred noted, observing the pouring rain, and occasional flashes of lightning.
"Hmm," Arthur agreed absentmindedly as he finished watering the class's plants.
It was nearing the end of Arthur's detention. Alfred was packing up his things so he could be headed home quickly too. After all, he and Matthew were driving down to their mom's early tomorrow morning, and he still needed to pack and get a good night's sleep.
"Someone's picking you up, right?" Alfred asked with a frown. On Friday's the four o'clock activity buses don't run. He wasn't sure what sort of transportation route Arthur usually took home, but if he walked there was no way he'd make it home in one piece.
"I don't live that far from here," Arthur answered stiffly. "It's only a fifteen minute walk."
"There's no way I'm letting you walk home in that." Alfred told him. "Is there any way one of your family members can pick you up? You can use my classroom phone to call."
"They're working," Arthur said shortly. "And I'll be fine. I've walked through worse weather before."
"Dude, it's like a hurricane out there!" Alfred exclaimed. "You know what? I'll drive you home."
"No bloody way, I told you I'll be fine!" Arthur yelled.
"Come on Arthur, it won't be any trouble!" Alfred reassured him. "Now let's get going before the storm gets even worse."
Arthur looked like he wanted to punch somebody, but finally gave in and followed his teachers out of the classroom and down the hall. Alfred led him to his vehicle, which was a green jeep. They had to run fast across the parking lot, but even that wasn't enough. By the time they got into the jeep, both were soaked to the skin.
"See, it's a good thing you're getting a ride, huh?" Alfred pointed out, and then noticed Arthur's teeth chattering. "Hold on a sec, lemme get the heat on."
It didn't take that long for Alfred's jeep to warm up. It was fairly new; he'd just gotten it last month. He'd used to have an awesome little blue car before this. It was old, and Matthew urged him to get a different car, but Alfred had loved it. One day though, the car had just crapped out and went to sleep forever.
"Alrighty now, what's your address?" Alfred asked a few minutes later after they had both warmed up.
"51 Brown street," Arthur answered automatically.
"Hey, you live on brown street? That's not far from me and Mattie's house! It's just two roads over on Marlow street, the house with the huge American flag and red shutters!" Alfred prattled on cheerfully as he pulled out of the parking lot and proceeded towards their destination. He turned on the radio and played the rock station, since it was always nice to have noise in the background.
"So Artie, how much do you like animals?" Alfred asked randomly.
"It depends on what one. I'm fond of cat's..." Arthur answered cautiously.
"Oh that's right, I remember we talked about your old pet cat once!" Alfred remembered. "Well you know what? I should totally take you to the clinic Mattie works at! they've got lots of hurt and sick cats there who I bet would love some visitors!"
"Oh. Um, yeah. That would be cool." Arthur agreed, and Alfred's smile got even bigger if that was possible.
"Awesome! I'll totally check with Mattie and set up a date for you to come then!" He said.
Right after speaking, Alfred pulled onto Brown street. He drove for a few seconds before reaching the house that had a mailbox with the number 51 on it. The house didn't look too bad. It was two stories, with a lawn that looked a little overgrown, and the paint was chipping off the sides of the house, but it still looked good. Alfred was glad it wasn't some beaten up shack or something, because that's what he'd sometimes imagined before.
"This is your house, right?" Alfred asked.
"Yes, this is it." Arthur answered, and so Alfred pulled into the driveway, which was empty. "Um, thanks for-"
"No problem!" Alfred interrupted. "Anytime you need something, a ride, someone to talk to, you can come to me okay? You're a good kid Arthur, I know it. Me, and Roderich, and everyone else has your back, okay? We're here to help."
"Thanks," Arthur said, averting his eyes from his teacher's. "Well, I suppose I should go. Have a good weekend Mr. Jones."
"You too Art," Alfred said, before Arthur shut the door and proceeded into his house. Alfred stayed in the driveway to make sure that Arthur made it in okay. Once the teen was inside, he backed up and was off.
Later that day, he got a call from Roderich telling him that the meeting with Arthur's brother would be Tuesday morning.
a/n: Thanks to all the lovely reviews for last chapter! I hope this chapter was to your liking as well!