"Alfred, Noah, please sit down! David put your phone away." It was like Ms Roberts could see everything as she started shouting at her students the moment she walked into the classroom.
Matthew sat in the back of the room with a group of other students. Gilbert, the boy he met on the first day, had his arm around Matthew. That's the thing he noticed about his new friend, Gilbert was pretty affectionate, even if they've only known each other a week. They barely knew much about each other besides some little things like their music tastes, their friendship is mostly just Gilbert dragging Matthew around and being very openly affectionate to him.
Sitting on Matthew's other side was a dark haired girl with tan skin and dark makeup who he believed to be named Nova. She was a small girl with chubby cheeks, which made her look like a child wearing her mother's makeup. From what Matthew had seen, she was much nicer than she looked but liked being sarcastic. She also spoke fluent Spanish, which had made Matthew think of bringing up that he was also bilingual to attempt to make friends.
Next to Gilbert sat a boy with a golden tan skin tone and multicolored hair. His hair was pretty curly naturally, but he straightened it for the most part. Matthew only knows his name, which was Jason.
There were others in Gilbert's group of friends, but they weren't in Matthew's classes and he'd only just glimpsed them at lunch, so he didn't know much about any of them.
Matthew was only acutely aware of the conversation around him, favoring just staring at a page in his notebook where he scribbled random things and words. He was drawing stars when Gilbert pulled him closer, causing his pencil to trail across the whole of the page.
"Mattie, what was your first word?" Gilbert was so close he could feel the other's breath on his ear, which made Matthew shiver slightly. "Mine was some variation of 'mom.'"
"Oh, um, I think it was 'Amour.' But my dad would say it was 'Alfie,' I think." As Matthew spoke he pulled his chair closer to Gilbert's with his foot so he didn't feel like he was leaning over towards the other.
"So your mom and dad have two different stories?" Nova leaned forward on the table, propping her head up with her hand.
"Uh, no, not my mom. I don't really have a m--"
"Oh, shit, Sorry! Didn't realize." Nova cut Matthew off to speak. "Then who told the other story."
"No, um, I had a mom, at some point, I guess. But she didn't want me... or Alfred, we were adopted. I've got two dads!" Matthew subconsciously leaned into Gilbert, not knowing how the others would react to his family.
"Wow, what? You got gay dads? That's so cool! Your brother made it seem like you had the typical middle class, working dad, stay-at-home mom two kids American family. But two dads, that so much cooler!" To Matthew, Gilbert's enthusiasm was a bit much, he'd never gotten a positive reaction with as much energy as Gilbert had. Nova and Jason didn't seem to have any strong reaction, they just laughed at their friend. Matthew smiled slightly, he felt slightly less uneasy around Gilbert, even feeling safe at times when they were this close, like he was being protected.
"Quiet in the back." Gilbert was still excitedly speaking when Ms Roberts called out to quiet him and Matthew was pulled back into the reality of being in an unsafe classroom surrounded by mostly strangers with unknown intentions. He pulled himself away from Gilbert, pulling his seat into the desk so the pale boy's arm was no longer around him.
Mathew dug his pencil into the paper in front of him, dragging it around and making rips in the page. To avoid looking back at the three students around him.
"Today, we have a special project, one of the biggest projects you'll get from homeroom, so listen good. It has to do with family, so, Alfred and Matthew, you can't be in the same group and you better not have the same presentation--"
"Like I'd let you join his group. You probably would, though. You don't seem to realize he's a dick." Gilbert leaned in towards Matthew's ear and whispered, distracting him from the rest of the teacher's words.
"He's a good person, you just don't know him, now shush!" He shoved the pale boy away as subtly as he could, trying to seem playful rather than rude. If asked, he'd say it was because he wanted to pay attention, but really he just wanted some space, since he never seemed to have a personal bubble around Gilbert and his friends.
"I know him enough, he called me a demon-eyed faggot on the first day. He was the new kid for five seconds and then the school started loving him the moment they saw he was a handsome, football-playing asshole." Gilbert seemed to move closer, if it were possible, making Matthew wonder if he knew what boundaries were at all. "Oh, you're just so innocent, but you'll have to see soon who you'd rather associate yourself with. And that is me, because I'm awesome while Alfred's dumb." He sighed, busing himself with ripping the edges of Matthew's notebook. "Or else you'll be the target of his friend's teasing." He leaned himself on Matthew with a sigh, like he was settling down for sleep.
Alfred seemed to sense his twin's staring, so he turned to look up at Matthew, looking a bit confused before sticking his tongue out with a slightly annoyed look and turning back to his friends to whisper. Matthew stared at the group chatting before pushing Gilbert away with a bit more force, the other boys chair dragging on the floor and causing a sound that brought attention to them.
"Gilbert, Matthew, care to explain your interruption of my class?" Ms Roberts stared at them from the front of the room, looking bored and unfazed as always. She had a stack of papers in her hand, which she must have been dividing up to be passed out as her fingers made breaks in the stack.
"You know, just making out, the usual!" Gilbert almost shouted across the classroom, seeming calm about the embarrassing statement. He smirked at the reactions he got from his classmates, which must have made Ms Roberts even more unamused.
"No, no." Matthew could feel his face heating up as he sank down into his chair, his fingernails scraped unpleasantly on the wooden bottom as he gripped the sides. "Not making out, Gilbert just fell." His voice was high with embarrassment and it suddenly felt like something was caught in his throat. All feelings came up at once, all his hatred of public school and anxiety about these new friends, along with the paranoia of what would happen if he continued to show this weakness to the staring classroom. He wanted to leave, but he couldn't, normal teenagers aren't even fazed about a comment like that, but he could also bet that no other teenager in the room thought up all the paranoia filled thoughts he did.
He just stared down at his lap, taking long breaths and ignoring everything around him. He was normally pretty good at looking fine, but something about his trust in his brother being questioned sort of pushed him out of the zone of 'fine.' He hadn't noticed that everyone had stoped looking at him as soon as he said Gilbert fell, so he didn't have that to ease him. His 'friends' didn't pay too much attention, he just looked slightly embarrassed to them, they couldn't hear his thoughts, so they just continued to listen to the teacher, Gilbert slinging his arm around Matthew once again.
He was able to calm himself again pretty quickly, but he didn't bother paying attention to the rest of the class, opting to stare absentmindedly at his notebook, the conversation that eventually started up around him barely being registered by his brain as actual words. He was snapped into reality with a bell, everyone had already packed and were filing out of the classroom, leaving Matthew sitting there alone, scrambling to shove his stuff in his bag so he could hurry to his next class.
The hall was crowded, as always. Groups had already formed in the short time since the bell, making maneuvering the river of teenagers even harder. Most groups were outside classrooms, waiting for doors to open or just waiting until the last possible moment to go in and sit down. The west hall always had more people in the hallways, since the classrooms were usually all locked until the bell starting class, considering they were elective classes filled with equipment that they didn't want stolen. Matthew stuck close to the wall, running his hand along the painting of a cartoonish otter as he passed it, rolling his eyes slightly at it. He was near the office in the center of the school when someone grabbed the hood of his jacket. Causing him to stumble forward, yelping as he almost fell, being grabbed by the arm at the last minute. He expected to turn and see Gilbert, but was instead face to face with his brother.
"Oh! Alfie. What's up?" He straightened out his clothes as he spoke, feeling a bit safer in the presence of his brother, almost being able to ignore the crowds of students moving around him. His brother didn't exactly look excited to see him, he looked more annoyed, with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed.
"Look, you can't hang out with the albino kid or any of the other gay kids, I don't want to be associated with them in any way. And drop the accent, you sound like a dick." He spoke quickly, getting straight to the point. Matthew felt a little hurt by the words, the bluntness of his twins words like a stab and he definitely didn't expect that. Alfred seemed to notice though and his expressed changed slightly, to have a softer look in his eyes. "Trust me, it's for your own good. I can't take your side if you get picked on, so just, don't hang out with them, don't talk about Francis or Arthur, speak like an American, and don't make yourself out to be a weirdo."
"Uh—" He didn't even get a chance to speak before the other blonde flashed him a smile then turned away, melding into the mob of students easily. Matthew sat, staring at the place Alfred had been, shocked, before shaking it off and making his way to his first period of the day, Art.
Arriving in the classroom was uneventful, the teacher was sitting at her desk, playing her artsy-folk music while her class settled in. Matthew had been to Art class two times now, so he didn't need instructions on what to do. He went over to the tall wall filled with vertical, thin cubbies holding each about ten portfolios, running his hand along them until he pulled out his, which didn't have much drawn on it yet, though he planned to have it covered soon. On his way to the table, he grabbed a few charcoal pencils and a blending stump.
He pulled out his paper and stared at the sketch he had already. The assignment was to draw something that would give of a 'Halloween' or 'October' vibe, since it was so close to he spooky holiday. Matthew drew a human skull, but he expected others to draw sugar skulls so he decided against that direction. He instead drew a mouse in the skull, with flowers laying around the skull. The mouse was supposed to represent all the kids, wearing cute costumes, and the flowers were supposed to add a little bit of 'the day of the dead' into it, even if that wasn't the assignment. He was allowed to draw his piece anyway he wanted, so he went away from the majority of the class and decided to draw it in black and white, drawing as close to realism he could.
He was getting ready to begin drawing when he felt a gentle tap on the shoulder. It was light and quick, almost as if it had never happened and Matthew thought for a moment that he had actually imagined it. He didn't want to risk ignoring someone so he glanced back behind him to see one of his classmates fiddling with his hands in a nervous way. They had a soft jawline and pink lips that looked overly chewed. Their eyes were wide and round, having a blue, almost gray color to them. They were pretty short, wearing an oversized, lightly colored hoodie that exposed one of their shoulders. They were picking at their nails, thought Matthew could barely tell as their selves were long enough to cover their hands. Matthew honestly couldn't tell if the person standing in front of them was a boy or girl.
Their eyes slowly traveled from the floor up to look at Matthew's face, though not quite his eyes, and they proceeded to bite down on the corner of their lip, drawing a little speck of blood before speaking. "Hi, you, uh. Well, you probably don't know me, but, my name's Kristopher, we've sat at the same lunch table for, like, the past week. I'm Jason's friend, so I doubt Gilbert pointed me out to you, I'm pretty easy to miss, if he did he probably called me Kris, they all call me Kris, or Krissie... But I just wanted to come over because you don't seem to talk to anyone in this class and neither do I so maybe we could sit together so we're not, like, lame loner weirdos. We'll instead be just lame weirdos." They smiled for a second before faltering a little. "I-I didn't mean to call you a lame loner weirdo, I'm sorry, just..." they trailed off, their eyes drifting down to the floor once again and Matthew thought he looked like he could cry at any moment.
Matthew stared for a moment, noticing how nervous they looked, which was something Matthew could feel he could relate to. A smile spread across his face and he laughed a little.
"I'd love for you to come sit with me, we can talk while we work. You seem like someone I could get along with." He saw a genuine smile spread across the others lips as they placed all their things down in the spot next to Matthew. As they were placing their supplies out Matthew glanced up and down at the other, they wore old running shoes and baggy jeans, their brown hair was short, with almost shaved sides, but he couldn't spot anything that would give a solid clue toward the new comers gender.
"I'm a boy." The other must've noticed his staring, because he spoke up in a hurried tone, his eye brows pushed together in a sort of frustrated way, but he stared down at his art.
"Oh, I'm sorry for staring, I must be— Sorry." Matthew looked away, embarrassed, fussing with his hair to ignore the sudden awkwardness.
"It's fine, I'm used to worse. I kinda hate when people ask, usually. I just try to drop hints so they don't. I swear Jason only asked me out because he thought I was a girl. I am what made him realize he was Bi, anyway." Kris laughed, the little bit of tension melting away.
Matthew was a little shocked by the other speaking almost without fear, but he could also tell that the smaller boy's voice shook and he still fiddled with his hands. It only took him a moment to realize the other's tactic, open up about what others might dislike about him so he could know if new people were bothered by that, it was smart, but it must take guts to spill all that when first meeting someone.
"Um, what do you think about my drawing?" Kris pushed his art over to Matthew, it was a half outlined drawing of the busts of two people that looked to be standing back to back. The taller of the two wore a cartoonish fox mask with a realistic muzzle that foamed at the mouth. It was carrying a single arrow, pricking it's right finger on the head. The other wore a cartoon character mask, with tears flowing in large drops down into the persons cupped hands, leaking from between it's fingers. The drawing was done on watercolor paper, so Matthew could only assume Kris meant to paint in its colors later.
"Holy cow, that's good! And creepy, like, wow." Matthew looked at the other boy's face, he almost couldn't believe someone could have that talent and not be the most confident person in the world. "You're pretty much better than a professional, you could sell this kind of thing for money." Matthew was sort of shocked to find his fear was almost nonexistent around the other boy, something about how small and gentle he looked just made Matthew calm, but also ready to protect the brunette.
"I don't know, I still need to improve, I'd feel bad taking money when I'm not really happy with my art yet." Kris laughed a little, pulling his art back under him to continue lining. Matthew stared at the boy for a few seconds before turning to begin drawing the details of the mouse in his drawing. He felt like he had a genuine friend in the school, sure Gilbert said they were friends and dragged him around, but the albino never seemed to really sit down and talk, so Matthew knew barely anything about him. He wasn't doubting he could be friends with Gilbert, he defiantly felt like he was safe around him, and he was sure they shared interests, but Matthew wasn't sure if he could consider them friends just yet.
