"Please don't tell me you're going to be wearing that to school again?" Arthur Kirkland, the self-proclaimed gentlemen stared over the rim of his tea cup at Kaoru of who slouched carelessly in front of him. He folded the newspaper he was reading into four equal folds, and then placed it on the flower print cloth that blanketed the kitchen table.
"So?" Kaoru snapped back at his father, pulling the red jacked tighter around his chest. "What of it?"
"It's not part of the uniform regulation. Have you read the school rules? What on earth would your mother think if I, as an English teacher, let you bend such a law?"
He's acting all posh again. Kaoru sighed. He's such a stickler to the rules. I doubt he ever was a teenager.
"Well, fine." The boy huffed. "I'll take it off. Happy?"
"Then I'm very happy." He disappeared behind the newspaper that he unfolded once again. "You'd better head for school then. If you want to walk everyday like you said, then you have to make sure you start up early. I won't tolerate lateness in my class."
The key rings on Kaoru's backpack jingled as he pulled it over his shoulder and headed for the door that lead out to the front lawn. He wandered off without as much as a goodbye, reluctantly shuffling along the pavement like he was heading toward a prison rather than an Academy.
It sure felt that way.
"Hey. Hey!" Someone far off yelled.
He wasn't surprised to have his adopted bother to come out of the blue and interrupt his peaceful thoughts; he guessed it was just another gift of having a brother. Even though they were so different from each other, the two always seemed to get along without too many problems or disagreements. Well, Most of the time.
The fast footsteps came sprinting across the pavement, along with a large amount of undecipherable words spewed out from behind him.
"I swear to god, I can't even rely on you to wait for me to get up in the morning!" The other boy ran up to Kaoru and paused to catch his breath. After all, he'd been running the last three streets to catch up with his less than interested sibling.
Kaoru brushed back his dark brown hair, shrugged, and didn't slow down for his brother.
"I couldn't wait for you. There is a reason, but I mustn't tell you. You might tell." Kaoru lied and placed a finger over his mouth as if it was really a secret not to be told.
"Oh!" Yong suu jumped on the spot in delight, "I won't tell! I promise, Tell me and my lips will be sealed!"
"Well, maybe." Kaoru shrugged again, smiling at how gullible his brother was. "Lean in close. Yeah, that's it. Closer! Lend me your ear, will you?"
"Come on." Yong suu was dead serious, "Tell me."
"Are you sure?" Kaoru Whispered.
"Yes! Tell me for God's sake, tell me!" Yong suu squealed.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'll tell you."
"Great." said Yong suu, his tone of voice dripping with sarcasm. "Tell me anytime now."
"I'll tell you" He paused in effect, "… later." Kaoru ran off at his top speed, turning around the streets turns and bends, laughing manically all the way.
Yong suu stood in a confused silence for a number of moments before coming to his senses and running after him in something between rage and stupidity.
"God damn you!" Yong suu shook his fist like an angered old man. "Once I get my hands on you, you'll be sorry!"
The Academy sat between old oaks and Maple trees, and the leaves that fell during autumn littered the grounds with a display of dark and light natural colours. It was large school that held just under three thousand, with a number of class rooms that remained empty or contained boxes of textbooks too many years out of date.
Some of the buildings contained in the school were twenty odd years old, while other were only finished being built three or four years before. Quite few of these old and slightly run down places had some club activity, but only those who had the commitment to give plenty of tender love and care, for they weren't the most pleasing to the eye (Of which that had peeling paint, rusty and not very trustable chairs, scratched chalkboards and often layers upon layers of cobwebs).
The exterior, in whole, was taken care of frequently. The school counsel took some pride in this, taking under consideration every littler bin and mowed lawn until it was perfection of aesthetic beauty.
Unfortunately not a lot of the students gave much interest towards any of that.
The majority of the students attending the Academy had a lazy 'I'll do it later' attitude, which remained unchanged by every attempt by the principal and teacher alike. Slacking off was widely acknowledged as the norm, as was skipping a day of mildly difficult school work to stalk aimlessly around the streets of the city acting like they had a reason to be there. Kaoru and Yong suu both had done this the previous day.
"Jesus!" yelled Yong suu, "Last night I was scared out of my wits. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Dad to come in and rip my head off!"
Kaoru was staring out at his fellow classmates reluctantly enter the Academy's gates.
"Hey! Are you even listening? It's like I'm talking to a brick wall." He groaned, pulling on Kaoru's arm.
"What?" Kaoru snapped immediately out of his daydream state and faced his brother
"So you've come back to earth then? Congratulations, space cadet." Yong suu said sarcastically. "I was saying how-"
"You were scared about Arthur, I get it." He interrupted, "And if it gives you any relief, He came and talked to me yesterday night about how he doesn't want us skipping classes anymore. He said that we did it too much a year and that its time to buckle down and concentrate on our school work."
"Oh." Yong suu said. "Are we gonna buckle down and concentrate on our school work?"
"No." Kaoru replied simply.
They neither of them showed any sign of uncertainty on the decision, both being used to the idea of disobeying whatever their Father said.
"Still," Yong suu sighed, "You could have told me earlier that he talked to you. Maybe then I would have gotten more sleep. I'm knackered."
"Sleep in Health class or something." Kaoru shrugged, beginning to lose interest and stare off into nothingness. "Mrs. Héderváry doesn't notice things like he students falling asleep or passing notes, she kind of blanks out in the middle of important stuff and tells us to talk amongst ourselves."
"OMG! There are my two favourite BFFs!" And there he stood, Feliks Łukasiewicz, as if he had popped out of thin air.
Feliks was a very loud Polish boy (His gender was often debatable) of whom everyone seemed to befriend, and at that time he was placed in the direct pathway of the two teenagers.
To both of their amazement, Feliks was in fact equipped trousers. Often the teachers looked down at him with hateful eyes because he often arrived wearing a skirt, which caused an outrage with the school faculty. Eventually, the rest of the students with their laid back attitude told the adults that the fact he felt entitled to dress that way it didn't affect their learning. It also helped that Feliks was friends with everyone so three thousand people were watching his back.
"Where were you guys yesterday!" Feliks asked while texting impossibly fast on his cell phone, "Everyone thought you were skipping again! It was such an LOL."
"We were." Kaoru, unlike all the other all the students he knew, couldn't stand how Feliks spoke. He hated when people wrote in text speak, let alone actually using it in actual speech.
"ROFL! That's totally awesome! But I bet your Dad and the homeroom teacher will be totally pissed!" Feliks laughed along with Yong suu, who seemed to tolerate Feliks much more than he did.
Even till this day no student, teacher or caretaker knew That Kaoru and Yong suu were related in any way to Mr. Kirkland, The bossy strict teacher who taught English at the Academy (He was baffled to the fact that no one figured it out; Even if they didn't look that much alike, the surname must have been a giveaway).
Kaoru slowly and silently stalked behind the other two students in the direction of the classroom.
He was already planning excuses to tell to his parents for the next time he decided to skip class.
