Music class. Of course. That was just what he needed. A completely useless subject where he would waste a whole hour that he could have devoted to shooting practice, or to a walk in the nice fresh air, or to collecting rocks for the Exchange Machine.
If at least it had been another useful class, he could have listened to the teacher, and if it had been a useless class in an ordinary classroom, he could have written a letter to Lili. But this was music class: there were no desks and one couldn't write unnoticed.
The worst of all, however, was that it was Roderich's most beloved subject, the one he was the most talented at, and Vash already knew that the Austrian boy would spend the entire hour showing off. That boy already had his eyes glued to the piano and Mr. Kirkland - another one - wasn't even here yet!
Roderich had been his best friend in kindergarten, but their friendship had been ruined by his sickeningly dependent personality. He was weak and spoiled. Whenever he got beaten up, he ran to Vash for help. It was always Vash who had to take care of him, who had to protect him, who had to bandage him up. He had tried to teach Roderich to fight; it never helped. The boy had stayed weak and needy, following Vash around like a puppy dog and asking him for favors. And what had he gotten in return? "Friendship". In other words: nothing at all. That is why it had to stop. He had had to put an end to their friendship, for both of their sakes. But Roderich hadn't even learned from it: he had simply found a new person to cling to instead, the Hungarian girl Elisaveta.
Vash, however, had learned. He had learned never to make friends that would only take advantage of him. He had vowed never to care about another stupid person. Friendships caused more inconveniences than advantages, the worst of all being that awful dependence, which made people needy and annoying and their relationships one-sided.
There had been one person only for whom he had made an exception. Lili was different from the others. Lili was dependent on him sometimes, but she was not ungrateful like Roderich had been. She valued everything he did for her and showed her appreciation. She paid attention to Vash's training and understood now how to defend herself when it was really necessary. She did not assume he would do her favors, and each time he did, she would face it ever again with happy surprise. And sometimes she even did things for him in return, such as the gift she had made for him to wear: a pair of pink pajamas. Why would he seek untrustworthy friends when he had her, his sister, who was worth so much more?
"HE-EEY!" Vash frowned at Feliks's annoying singsong voice. He looked to see what the boy was screaming about: the teacher had finally arrived.
"A very good morning to you, sir," said Roderich: of course, it was only natural for someone like him to suck up to the music teacher.
Mr. Kirkland number two. Just like the one in science class, he had red hair and unusually thick eyebrows. His hair was a lighter, more natural-looking red than that of the previous teacher, and his face was dappled with more freckles than the other possessed. His eyes were bright green.
"Now let us find out how well all ye folks can sing!" Roderich looked visibly disappointed: Vash could see how his hands itched for the piano.
"Are we gonna sing Friendship is Magic?"
"No," the teacher replied to Feliks.
Somehow, Vash vaguely remembered Feliks being part of the group that kept beating up Roderich when they were little, along with some other blonde kid, and a guy with white hair, but he might have been mixing things up, since Feliks didn't seem like the type to engage in physical bullying. It could also have been that vampire guy - Vladimir - and his friend Milen, but there had been at least five bullies, so maybe all five of them had done it at some point... The only one he remembered for certain was that white-haired guy, who probably didn't go to school here, since Vash hadn't seen him around.
By now, Mr. Kirkland was forcing everyone to sing something. When it was Vash's turn, he sang the Swiss national anthem, since he didn't know much else to sing.
"Your singing's too monotonous!" the teacher commented. Vash shrugged; wasn't that exactly the way he wanted it to be? He knew of a way he could sing that was not monotonous, and he had no plans for the near future to demonstrate it.
"That's slightly off-key, Feliciano, but not too bad, nice and passionate," Kirkland commented, walking past all the students one by one to critique their voices.
"More confidence, Toris! Nice bass, Milen! Tim-Govert, add some feeling to the song! No, no, that's off-key, Feliks... ALFRED! DEAR LORD! You sing louder and flatter than your father on gin!"
Vash cringed. He couldn't care less if people sang out of key softly, but this was a pain to his ears!
"Sounds alright, Roderich..." Again, Roderich was visibly disappointed. He had probably hoped he would be the best.
"Very good, Ivan, very passionate!" Roderich looked jealous. "Very goo - OH!" The teacher's smile shifted to a horrified expression when Ivan started whimpering. "Er, Ivan, don't squeak like that; I much preferred your previous way of - "
"Big brother..." The self-proclaimed lonely girl was back, walking straight at Ivan, chanting in a dark whisper:
"Marry me! Marry me! Marry me!"
"Go away!" Ivan whimpered. "Make her go away!"
"Um... Natalia... I don't think your brother wants..."
"Silence!" Natalia said angrily. Toris bowed his head.
"If you're lonely, I..."
"Silence!" Natalia said again, turning briefly towards Toris and then back to Ivan, who apparently was her brother.
"I can deal with this," said Elisaveta. "Nat, out! This class is for juniors only."
"I... don't... care!" Natalia struggled as Roderich's girlfriend tried to push her towards the door.
"Do I need to smack you with a pan?" Elisaveta added, but Ivan's sister kept struggling and attempting to scratch the older girl. Elisaveta's attempts to push her towards the door were failing: although she was strong, Natalia was even stronger.
"Excuse me, may I?" Emma walked a step closer and waved at Natalia. "Nat!"
Both girls stopped fighting and waited to see what the third one had to say.
"It's nice to see you, Nat," said Emma. Always that feigned modesty, Vash thought to himself. That girl really thought she could do everything with her gilded words, and Natalia seemed to fall for them as much as most other people did: she seemed calmer, more patient.
"It's nice," Emma repeated, "but wouldn't it be much nicer if you got married outside of school hours? It'd be much more romantic..."
Natalia stood still, staring at Emma for a moment, and then nodded softly. "Yes... more romantic..." Then she turned around and left. Another example of Emma's manipulative skills.
"Thank you, Emma," said the teacher, finishing his last critiques now. "Your turn, lassie! Sounds good: can you go higher? We're short of girls, so it'd be great if... Whoa there, Emma, not too high! You don't want to sound like a screeching parakeet, do you? I've heard enough of that squeaking when Peter sings at home! Well, we've had everyone then, haven't we?"
It was quiet for a moment, then everyone started nodding and mumbling "yes". The sleepy guy with the cat had had his turn, and so had Elisaveta, Vladimir, Milen, the Japanese boy...
"You forgot Mattie!" Alfred suddenly yelled.
"Who?" asked several students. Some of them started looking around the classroom, others looked at Alfred for an explanation. Roderich, perplexed, stated: "Who in the world is Mattie?"
"Mattie... Mattie..." The teacher thought for a minute, then jumped up. "Oh, right: Matthew, of course!" He looked around the room, and finally approached a quiet kid in the corner who Vash hadn't noticed before.
"Much too soft, Matthew: I can barely hear your singing! Can't you go any louder?"
Vash took another look at the kid and was struck by surprise. That was the same guy he had met at the machine! How had he never noticed before that that boy was in his class? Now he understood how he'd known Vash's name, since all three new students (Toris, Feliks and himself) had been introduced to the others during their first class. And now that he could properly hear the boy's name, he should make sure to remember it: Matthew. Matthew looked quite a bit like Alfred, Vash noticed, but it would be easy for him to tell the two apart since their behavior was so different. He nodded at Matthew to show him that he remembered who he was. Matthew smiled.