The hallways were decorated with several elaborate paintings and portraits of different figures. Alfred noticed one cubist painting by Picasso, tacked onto the wall in a solid gold frame that gleames in the harsh sunlight raining through the enormous bay windows in the main atrium. They climbed the velvet-carpet staircase, and soon turned down a wide corridor. Looking out the window, a large clock tower stamped its large shadow over the corner of the hedgemaze snakeing through the middle courtyard. They trounced over the marble floor in their raven penny loafers, leaving behind them a hard clacking sound.
They saw an open door, and looked up at the white sign over the door; it was the room for class 2-A. They looked at each other and nodded, their eyes tracing the wooden doorframe, clashing with the red and periwinkle pattern of the wall surrounding it. They walked into the classroom, and saw rows if block desks, connected underneath by a steel bar to the wooden chair behind it. A chalkboard sat behind the wide mahogany desk cluttered with a number of papers. One of which catching Alfred's eye, he looked down at his and his twins face. The Japanese wording encrypted the paper, leaving Alfred squinting his eyes like an elder without his glasses. Before he could make out the wording, Matthew elbowed him gently in his gut.
"Takes a minute to process, Mattie. I haven't read this in a while." Alfred said.
"Doesn't matter. The teacher is here, so we need to sit."
Alfred and Matthew sat next to each other squarely in the middle of the room. A number of students buzzed over menial activities of the day before. A few pointed at the new pair, with a few girls sitting on their desks grinning while talking with grand gestures towards the two. Alfred noticed this, and he waved at the pack with a smile, causing the gaggle of girls to snicker and giggle.
"Excuse me, but I think you have the wrong seat."
Matthew and Alfred looked up to see a black haired Asian man with thin-rimmed glasses. He clutched a black bag next to him, bearing a grey laptop. In his other hand was a thick black notebook that he set down on the desk.
"No big, dude. You can sit next to me."
"Al, I think he wants his desk back." Matthew whispered.
"Kyoya, don't scare the new kids away. I'm sorry, he's not that great yet around humans." A tall blonde man with deep blue, almost light lavender, eyes strolled into the room, a spring in his step as he announced his apology. "there's been talk about you two. Your the Jones twins. I meam, Williams. I don't know?"
"They can answer that in a second." A gruff voice filles the pockets of charger around the sunny classroom. A man with long strands of blonde hair raining down both sides of his head and a greying stubble on his chin plopped down in his chair. The class raced to their chairs, with Kyoya and the other teenager sitting next to them. There appeared to be two extra desks, so there were no odd men out in the room. The teacher spun in his leather black chair, and wafted the new twins forward.
"Mister Jones and Williams, please introduce us to the yourselves. Take all the time you need."
Altred grinned and clasped Matthew's hand, causing him to gasp as he was elevated to his feet and pulled to the front of the room. They turned around and faced the class, packed with blue blazers and yellow dress uniforms.
"How's it going, y'all. I'm Alfred, from the rocking world of America. My Eskimo brother here is Matthew, and he's Canadian."
The teacher let out a terse bark of laughter as he reclined in the chair, his arms crossed behind his head.
"And for our names, our parents divorced when we were a few months old. My mom took me to Canada, and our dad took Al to another place in Texas. That's a state in America. Al kept his name, and mom changed mine to Williams."
A hand from Kyoya shot up in the air. "How did you two end up here?" He asked.
"Our parents did an awesome thing and let us meet all the time. Eventually, the pulled a couple dollars together and shipped us off here." Alfred said as he rested his arm on Matthew's shoulder, whose face reddened slightly at the sight of the judge mental crowd in front of him.
"They sound quite wealthy. Do they do any work at a company around here?"
"They toom government jobs. One for good ole Texas, and the other for wherever the heck Ottawa is. That's the capital, just so you know."
Matthew sighed and turned to the teacher. "That's all from us." He walked back to his seat, with a jocular Alfred in tow. They landed in their comfortable seats. The teacher stood up and leaned on the chalkboard wearing a simple white button down short and blue tie with exclamation points splattered on the tie.
"Very good, newbies. I like them already. So, I am your Mister Abernathy. No sempai, sensei, sama, or whatever here. Just call me Mister Abernathy. I'm from the Appalachians in America. I was big behind the scenes in film, so I shot a good bit as a cinematographer for the movie Battle Royale. I've been stuck her ever since. I'm your home room and World History teacher, so you two picked the right time to drop in, because we are talking about the stars-and-striped now. I'm sure the rest of the class will introduce themselves in real time. So, just sit back, and let things run it's course. I'm actually a sub for the real teacher, so I'm learning with you younguns. So, somebody tell me about the Washingtin siege in 1812."
Alfred's hand shot up, and the teacher traced the room with his finger, sighing in defeat as he called on Alfred.
Alfred's smile faded to a frown. "First, the British took the main lower an upper regions of Canada. Then the natives there went and allied with them despite swearing allegiance with America first, taking over parts of the northeast. Then, in 1814 to be exact, the British landed in Washington, and they destroyed everything." Alfreds eyes widened and his speech halted like it was frozen in ice.
"So what happened during the attack." Mister Abernathy asked.
Alfred stayed frozen. He was stuck, like a roller coaster at the top of a hill. He felt the walls of the spacious room cave in on him slightly, but then he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he continued. "Arthur tor-sorry. Armadas from the English tore down and burned the White House and former capital building. The Canadian natives weren't there to help anybody."
"I'm surprised you mention Canada so much, considering that many people don't remember the importance they had on that aspect of the war."
Alfred choked a little, noticeable only to Matthew, and Kyoya a seat way. He coughed a few timea and ruffled his hair. He started to tap his foot, making a small clank from the floor. He nodded quickly, and shifted his eyes slightly to Matthew, who smiled sadly at Alfred.
Strolling down the hallway, Alfred had his headphones on as the pair traveled to the next class. Matthew looked towards Alfred and heared the loud music escape the earbuds. Matthew pulled out the earbuds, causing Alfred to gasp in surprise.
"You only listen to Hall and Oates when you want to feel better." Matthew said.
"Rich Girl is my favorite song. That's an All-the-time song."
Matthew patted Alfred on his broad shoulder, padded with the light-blue blazer. "I know bringing that up hurts, but you've let go." Matthew smiled.
"Doesn't make remembering any easier."
Matthew turned Alfred towards him as they backed to the side of the hall wearing a large window, sowing the grey walkeays outdoors. "Al, remember who you are. All of those things about you, the funny, loud, obnoxious, and hero complexes you have are just that. You're complex, but you do so good at forgiving. Nobody expects you to hate them because you don't want that. You're smarter than you think. All that hurt made you the annoying and heroic brother you are today. It's easy for me to wish it wasn't any other way, but I hope you wont regret all of those times, because it's helped you realize just how important you are. Not because your a country, but because you mean to do more good than anyone, even if you do it in really stupid ways sometimes."
The boy in front of him froze. He was still like the eagle statues that were planted along the hallway. Alfred's lips started to tremble, causing Matthew to lean towards him. He clenched his fists, and sniffed loudly. Alfred choked up and suddenly pulled his brother into a tight embrace. Mat thew smiled as he wrapped his arms around Alfred's middle. Alfred's shoulders started shaking, and Matthew quickly shifted his eyes around th empty hallway, comfortable enough to soak in Alfred's releases tension.
"I don't regret a thing, Mattie." Alfred said into Matthew's shoulder.
Alfred pulled away, wiping a spot underneath his eyes and rubbing his warm face. He stared into Matthew's soft eyes. Suddenly he chuckled, making Matthew laugh with him.
"I'm still gonna listen to "Rich Girl". It still is one of my favorite songs."
"Gwen Stefani is really talented."
Alfred pushed Matthew away. "Dude, dont even joke about that. Hall and Oates all the way."
"By the way, that blonde guy came up to me after class. That's why you had to wait. He wanted us to go up to this music room. He said he thinks we're a good fit for something, but he wouldn't say. He speaks French, though, so I'm not the only one."
"I caught his name. Tamaki, and he seems really flighty. I hope he's not secretly your mom, as you said earlier."
Matthew groaned and face palmed. "I was just going along with it."
"And the Academy Award goes to you, Mattie. We gotta hurry, though. We need to make it to class. Sing along to "Rich Girl" with me?"
As the twins off-key gargles called singing fliated down the hall, a pair of dark eyes stared at their backs, holding a pen in one hand and a ink-black notebook in another, slightly gaping at the new students.