Okay, so I know this might be kind of confusing, but this school uses a block schedule. If you don't know what a block schedule is, it's pretty much where a school day consists of four class periods that are and hour and a half long instead of eight 45 minutes classes. That way, classes alternate. So let's say Monday is an A day. You'll have 4 classes on that day, then on Tuesday, a B day, you'll have 4 different classes. This is important to the story because that means Ivan and Alfred don't see each other everyday. Thanks for sticking through that long-winded explaination.

Chapter Four

The weekend had been agonizingly long for Ivan. Though he didn't remember much of it. Once he had sobered up, Alfred's story replayed over and over again in his mind, and all he could think about was his own bitter childhood that up until recently he had no trouble suppressing.

Damn that Alfred.

When Monday rolled around, Ivan could hardly focus. He still had a pounding headache and felt every-so-slightly hung over from the amount of vodka he had consumed over the weekend. He didn't feel like doing much with his class, so he put on the play Macbeth (the unit they were currently studying). When asked what the catch was (oh how clever the lazy student is!), he calmly responded that they were to write a report over the major themes of the play or analyze any symbolism of their choice, the minimum being one page. Most students groaned, but when he offered bumping the minimum up to two pages, they quickly quieted themselves.

Oh how clever the lazy student is!

Then came third period. That was Alfred's class period. Ivan felt his stomach knot as his students glumly filed into his room and took their seats. Why was he nervous? He had no reason to be nervous. None! Yet his eyes continued to scan the room for that familiar tanned face, those bright, shining, blue eyes, and that elegantly-disheveled, sandy, blonde hair...

What was Ivan thinking? He internally slapped his wrist. Defiantly too much vodka... He thought solemnly.

When the tardy bell rang, still no Alfred. Ivan pretended not to notice as he made his way to the front of the room like he would on any normal, given Monday during third period and began to recite the roster as he called roll. The students called out "here" as he made his way down the list and he had to focus not to lose his air of apathy as he reached Alfred F. Jones.

"Jones?"

No response. He scanned the class and sure enough, Alfred's seat was empty. Ivan sighed.

"Mr. Braginski?" One of Alfred's football friends called out, raising his hand (a motion Ivan assumed was a seemingly polite gesture though meaningless because he spoke without being called upon).

"Da?" Ivan replied, slipping into his Russian due to his lack of focus (it had taken him almost two years to shed his verbal tick of using "da" at the end of almost all of his sentences, so most of his students recognized the word).

"He wasn't at school today."

Not at school...?

"Oh. I see." He replied.

He continued mechanically down the roster until he hit the last name, then he preceded to give the assignment and sit at his desk. Alfred's papers were staring back up at him tauntingly. Ivan rubbed his temples. His head was throbbing and he longed to put his head down, but he knew he couldn't do that if he didn't allow his students to do the same.

But why wasn't Alfred at school? Was he sick? Was he injured? Why did it matter so much? Why did he care? Hadn't he utterly loathed the idiot only days ago? What was happening to him? Suddenly vodka sounded very appealing again... Just to clear his thoughts, or jumble them beyond recognition... Probably the latter.

His eyes wandered back to the empty seat. It unnerved him how calm and silent the class was when Alfred was gone. Ivan had never noticed this because Alfred never missed. Ivan knew he should love this new-found silence, yet he hated how eerily focused his students were. It was as if they only misbehaved because Alfred did. Did he really have that much influence over them? Was he really so admired? Ivan's stomach began churning again and he felt nauseous. He had to stop. Ivan knew he was being completely unreasonable! Alfred was no different from any other student Ivan had, or at least that was the mantra running through his mind.

An hour and a half later the dismissal bell rang. That screeching banshee-like sound was music to Ivan's ears. He watched the students routinely file out, their usual chatter drumming back up as they made their way to the exit. Once they were gone Ivan got up and shut the door. He had a prep period last period and preparing lesson plans were the last thing on his mind. He took a deep breath. The air in the room felt stale. Over-used. Lifeless. Lonely... Fuck he needed fresh air. He threw open the door and quickly shut it behind him, briskly walking down the hall. Ivan wasn't sure where he was going, he just knew he couldn't stay in that room all by himself for another hour and a half. He had never had problems with being alone! Why was being so illogical today? He made it as far as the teacher's lounge when he began to slow. He had reduced his pace down to his usual leisurely stroll as his mind began to calm and his blood began to circulate. That's when he heard voices coming from the slightly open door of the teacher's lounge. The voices belonged to women deep in conversation. Ivan halted outside the door as he caught a piece of their conversation. Eavesdropping by no means was something Ivan routinely did (normally he didn't give enough of a shit to eavesdrop), but that little gut feeling that had been haunting him the past few day made him stop.

"You mean you haven't heard?" The first teacher, a short, stocky woman (whose subject escaped Ivan) asked.

"No! I haven't." Replied the other woman, a younger teacher, whom Ivan believed might have taught some computer class, replied.

"I heard that there's a custody battle."

"Oh! Really?"

"Yes! Between the father and his uncle. And I heard his uncle was the whole reason the two moved here! Something about money troubles and the uncle offered to help." The first woman stated.

"Oh dear," the computer teacher said in a voice that stressed more worry than Ivan could believe was sincere, "But isn't he almost eighteen?"

"Who knows? I can't believe you hadn't heard! The whole town knows! That poor baby." The stockier woman said, again Ivan caught that over-dramatized, sickly-sweet concern.

By now, Ivan had silently slipped into the lounge and was pouring himself a cup of coffee (if only to appear like he had a purpose to be there). He inwardly shook his head for the poor fool they were gossiping about.

"Who do think will get custody?" The younger woman continued.

"I'm not sure, I hear the boy is rather fond of his uncle, but personally, I hope his father gets him."

This caught Ivan's attention. He hated gossip, but something in his heart twitched. Something about their conversation felt familiar and no matter how introverted he was, he had a pit in his gut and his feet were rooted to the spot.

"But, why? If he likes his uncle more, shouldn't he go with him?" The younger woman asked; Ivan felt a little better when he caught a hint of genuine concern in her question.

The short woman leaned in towards her conversational partner and said in a soft voice, "because his uncle is a queer."

Ivan tensed. His hand clenched around the handle of his coffee mug. He could feel the muscles in his brow twitch and before he could catch himself, he heard himself clear his throat. The women looked at him in utter shock and the look in their eyes said "How long have you been standing there?" Ivan merely gave them his empty smile and spoke coolly,

"My apologies, da? I wasn't aware this room was limited to those who wanted to gossip about our students."

The younger woman's expression crumbled into something that resembled, humiliation and shame, whilst the other puffed out her chest and glared at Ivan.

"Well you were eavesdropping!"

"It is easy when one cannot whisper, da?" He replied quaintly, his cold violet eyes never leaving hers.

She visibly gulped and backed down, mumbling in what assumed was an ill-thought-out rebuttal, but he didn't care. He had caught them in the act and they knew it. He had won this round and felt oddly satisfied that he made them feel guilty. It had felt good to speak up, something he normally would have never done in favor of quietly seething and slipping out unnoticed.

He calmly poured himself another cup of coffee and politely bid them farewell, strolling out of the lounge, down the hall, and into his classroom which felt no longer felt so cold and stale.

On Tuesday, Ivan didn't have Alfred's class, but he knew that Alfred had tutoring on Wednesday afternoon and would also have him in class. It was an enigma, but that thought seemed to get him through the day. Ivan wondered if he should worry about it, but he didn't want to ruin his good mood... again.

On Wednesday, the day seemed to fly by, and it was third period before Ivan knew it. He watched the students shuffle in and chatter, casually making their way to their seats. Ivan sat at his desk, pretending to be interested in something on his desk, when in reality he was sneaking glances at the empty desk that had been assigned to Alfred.

There was on minute until the tardy bell rang and the sandy blonde still had not arrived. Ivan felt something akin to disappointment settle in his thoughts, but he pushed them to the back of his mind feverishly. He was probably sick or something...

Then the door opened and there stood Alfred. He made his way to his seat without a word and the room erupted into whispers.

"I thought he moved?"

"I thought he changed schools!"

"He's so brave~"

"Dude, those are just rumors, Al wouldn't leave us!"

Ivan's eye twitched when he caught sight of Alfred's shoulders slump and his brow furrow. He watched as Alfred tried to joke with his friends, but it was obvious, at least to Ivan, that he wasn't truly in any state of mind for their usual banter.

He quickly stood and began conducting the lesson, a continuation of discussing the major themes and symbolism of Macbeth. For once, Alfred seemed relieved to start a lesson as all the whispering instantly died down. Ivan gave a brief lecture on possible topics and encouraged class discussion. A few students (namely the smart kids who wanted to succeed or weren't embarrassed to share their opinions) joined in, but Ivan eventually decided it was best to allow the students to work on their reports and turn in make-up work, something Ivan rarely allowed.

The class began working on the task at hand and Ivan went over to Alfred's desk and quietly explained the report that had been assigned last period. Alfred didn't respond, but nodded and got out a sheet of paper and began writing. Ivan furrowed his brow, but said nothing as he sat back down.

When class ended, Ivan quietly motioned for Alfred to stay. Alfred watched at everyone else filtered out of the room, and when the last person left, he slowly made his way to Ivan's desk.

"Yeah, Mr. Braginski?" He asked.

"I believe, this, is yours?" Ivan stated, handing Alfred the black folder he had given Ivan last Friday.

Quickly, Alfred snatched it and nodded. He opened the folder and his eyes widened. In red ink on the top of each page was a grade.

"You actually read and graded them...?" Alfred asked in disbelief.

"Of course. I told everyone in my class at the beginning of the year that if you take an interest in succeeding in my class, then you will be rewarded. You made an effort to improve your grade when given the opportunity, and it was rewarded," Ivan stated simply.

A grin spread across Alfred's face, "thanks, Mr. B!"

Ivan grunted and nodded, "we will discuss your work in tutoring today, don't forget."

Alfred's smile faded into a pout and he rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it..."

"Good. Now go to class." Ivan dismissed.

Alfred left the room and Ivan began grading the late work his students had turned in. Ivan knew that Alfred's writings weren't going to be the only thing discussed.

Notes

DONE! FINALLY DONE! Ugh this chapter was kinda hard to write. I tried to make it longer because the last chapter was super short. I was going to incorporate tutoring in this chapter, but I felt like it would be overkill, so that will be in the next chapter.

I tried editing this chapter more because I reread the others and found a lot of mistakes (all of which I'm to lazy to fix...heheh...)

Review credits:
Cerulean Gaze, angelstryke, wonderfulwonderfulwolf, Artfan, CassiusKillard, and Oceanfur.

Thank you so much for your reviews! They are very appreciated and make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside~!

-GERMERICA