I tapped my pencil on my finished test impatiently, I was sitting with it on my desk for thirty minutes and my global history teacher has yet to collect it. He collected every other student's test once they were done, I guessed that he forgot about me, like everybody else did. I stared around the room, trying to find something to distract me from counting the minutes that passed. I was unluckily seated in the back of the class, I never liked sitting in the back, it made me feel even more invisible. Most students were talking in hushed voiced about their weekend plans, going to the mall, visiting each other's houses, watching a movie that just came out, things like that. Some students were quiet like me, having no friends in this class. One student leaned into her book, eyes running from side to side. She glanced at the clock for a split second before returning to her story. It made me wish I brought a book. One student glared at his desk, angry that his test was taken away. He was most likely not planning on getting caught for cheating. The student in front of him switched her attention between her test packet and her scantron, making sure that she copied every answer onto the scantron correctly. Once in a while she would glare at the boy behind her, not surprising since she was the person he got caught copying off of. The second the student put her hands to her side, showing that she as done with her test, the teacher walked by and collected it. I glared at him for a moment, I was sitting in class for I didn't even know how long anymore with my finished test, and he doesn't collect it. Yet he sees a different student finish their test, and he collects it right away. This was definitely not the first time this happened, nor was this the only class it happened in.
Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced to my right and almost jumped from this student's appearance. He had pale skin, white hair, and blood red eyes. I forced myself to calm down as I realized it was just Gilbert. He did scare me every time though, it must have been the scary red eyes. "H-Hey, you're ummm..."
"Matthew Williams," I sighed. It wasn't really a surprise that somebody forgot my name, it happened every time.
"Right," Gilbert gave me a nervous smile, "I really need to sharpen this pencil, could you please do that for me?"
I gave him a questioning look, "I'm sorry, but may I ask why you cannot do it yourself?"
Gilbert's scary red eyes trailed to Mr. Henderson, "Alright look. You know how I always get detention and get yelled at in this class, right?" I gave him a small nod. He was always that one student who argued with the teacher and entertained the whole class while stalling us from getting real work done. "Well it's Friday, and I have not gotten a single detention yet. I have plans afterschool, and I just know that the second I draw attention to myself, Mr. Henderson is going to give me detention or even worse; Saturday school. We only have five minutes until this class ends and this is the last period in the school day. I can make it as long as I stay practically invisible, and that involves not getting up."
I stared at him deadpanned. Since when did people actually want to be invisible? The albino gave me a pleading look and I simply gave him a small nod. He handed me a blue colored pencil with a toothy grin and I stood up from my seat. Even the students that were bored out of their mind and looking for any distraction didn't glance at me. I walked to the front of the room and turned to my left. An electric pencil sharpener sat neatly on Mr. Henderson's desk. I shoved the pencil in the sharpener, and the thing screamed as I held the pencil in place. There was still absolutely no reaction from any of the students, only Gilbert who glanced up at me every couple of seconds. Mr. Henderson paid no mind to the screeching pencil sharpener as he graded somebody's test, ouch, they got a D-, I sure felt bad for that student. After using the loudest machine in a classroom that was practically dead silent and still nobody noticed me, I felt that there was nothing that I could do to make them pay attention. Why did I have to be so invisible? I took the now sharpened pencil and returned to my seat as quickly as possible. "Here you go," I whispered.
"Thanks! You're awesome!" Gilbert mouthed to me.
"What do you even need a colored pencil for anyways?" I asked. Without saying another word, Gilbert held up what looked like a sketch book. An eating area was drawn on the sketch book, it looked like some popular restaurant. "Is that a restaurant?"
The albino nodded, "I'm almost done with it, I just have to color this pattern on the table cloth." I leaned over in my seat to get a better look. A group of citizens were sitting around a table with menus in their hands. A woman with short blonde hair and rosy red cheeks was laughing at something a man with curly black hair was saying. The man next to the blonde, wore a small smile, as if he were only half paying attention as he scanned the menu. Behind them, was a waitress with thick brown hair carrying a tray full of food, one plate held a pile of pasta, one plate carrying steak, and two more plates carrying chocolate cake. She wore a calm expression and looked confident as she walked across the restaurant. The sketch didn't even stop there, there were dozens of people in the background, all doing their own thing and having a good time. Far in the background, there was a window, with extreme details of the setting outside of the building. I gaped at the setting; it looked as if I could actually step inside of it.
"Did you draw that?" I asked.
Gilbert smiled, "Awesome, right? It could still use some improvement though."
I stared at him wide-eyed, "How in the world could you possibly make that drawing better than it already is?"
Gilbert hummed in thought, "Well I still haven't finished the table cloth yet, also the man a couple people behind the waitress doesn't look as happy as I wanted him to."
"Still, you have a lot of talent, that looks so realistic that it's almost scary."
Gilbert was about to say something before Mr. Henderson cut him off, "Alright well the bell is going to ring any second, did I collect everybody's tests?"
I cleared my throat, "Actually you-" if anybody heard me, they lost all of their attention to the loud ringing of the school bell, declaring the start of the weekend.
"Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all on Monday," Mr. Henderson called as the high school students poured out of the classroom. Gilbert shoved his sketchbook in his bag and raced into the hallway, not even saying goodbye to me.
I picked up my test with a shaking hand and slowly made my way to Mr. Henderson's desk. "H-Hello Mr. Henderson."
The history teacher looked up from the pile of paper he was shuffling and gave me a polite smile, "Good afternoon... uhhh-"
"Matthew," I said quietly. This was really getting tiring.
Mr. Henderson let out an awkward laugh, "right of course Matthew! Can I help you with anything?"
I nodded, "You forgot to collect my test," I placed the packet with the scantron in it in front of him.
The man in front of me stared at me in surprise, "I didn't know that you were in this class, in all honesty, I didn't even know that you were my student. I apologize, what is your full name?"
"Matthew Williams."
Mr. Henderson rolled his chair over to his computer and frowned, "It appears that I have marked you as absent, I'll have to change that."
I sighed, "Yes, well I only have to correct you on that every day."
Mr. Henderson looked up from his computer, "I'm sorry, but what did you say?"
Amazing. Even while I was in mid-conversation with somebody, they will not pay attention. "Nothing."
"Oh, I thought that you said something, anyways thank you very much for handing in your test. Have a good weekend..."
"Matthew."
"Right, well have a good weekend."
With that annoying episode ending, I walked out of the classroom and walked down the hallway calmly. I wasn't rushing because I didn't have to take a bus. I usually had to, but not today. Today I was being picked up by my mom so that we could go to the airport. I stopped quickly at my locker and shoved my backpack inside of it; I already did all of my homework while waiting for Mr. Henderson to collect my test, so I didn't really need it for the weekend. I exited the school and scanned the parking lot, I still didn't see my mom's car. Suddenly a brunet pushed me aside happily as he practically danced down the parking lot, "Sorry," I called out. I didn't seem like he knew I was there to begin with though, since he didn't really react to my apology.
"IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GONNA GET DOWN ON-"
"DON'T YOU DARE START SINGING THAT SONG, ANTONIO!" A French accent yelled as the blonde man raced to the Spanish brunet.
Antonio let out a little pout before he cheerfulness returned in an instant, "You're just jealous because I can beat you in lazar tagging."
Gilbert pushed open the school doors and ran up to a blue car sitting in the parking lot, "No way! I am going to win! I was born to fight, I can certainly win a simple game of lazar tagging!"
Francis laughed, "Born to fight, huh? It don't seem that way since you get your ass kick by Ludwig last night."
"Hey! That only happened because I let my guard down. He strikes like lightning. Just when I started to believe that he wasn't mad at me for inviting Feliciano to the lunch table yesterday... BAM! He punched me right across my face." I watched Antonio support himself on Gilbert's car since he was almost to the point of falling over from laughing. "Hey! At least I didn't forget my backpack at home!"
"That was yesterday, and I didn't make the same mistake today!" Antonio defended.
"Still, you forget to give my binder back," Francis said.
Antonio let out a gasp, "Oh right! I'm sorry, Francis. I will bring it back on Monday!"
Francis snorted, "I just remind you at lunch, and you forget. How are you going to remember by Monday?"
Gilbert jumped into his car with Francis and Antonio following, "Come on guys, let's go lazar tagging!" Gilbert cheered as the engine roared. I jumped as the tires screeched against the concrete and the car sped forward. The blue car raced out of the parking lot and swerved between cars as it went down the road. I couldn't even imagine how many speeding tickets that guy had. Suddenly I turned my head at the sound of a car beeping. To my right, was a light brown, beat up car that looked like it was going to break down any second. I walked towards it and stepped inside.
In the driver's seat, sat a middle aged woman with dirty blonde hair that went down to her elbow in waves. She wore a sweet smile, and her dark blue eyes shined of joy. "Hello, Matthew," She greeted
I smiled, "Hello."
My mother gave me a large grin, "Today's the day."
"I figured that since we were going to the airport." Today was the day. Mom got a call last night from the social worker saying that Alfred was flying over to New York early. Mom was ecstatic; she had not seen him since he was a baby after all. I was nervous, not every day does your long lost twin move in with you and your mom. There were so many things to worry about already, having another teenager is just adding onto the pile. She couldn't really say no even if she wanted to though, and she definitely wanted to support Alfred.
Mom started driving calmly out of the parking lot, but I could see her excitement on her face through the mirror. "I am so happy right now, after all this time I will finally be able to see Alfred!"
"Yes, there is just one thing though," I started.
She turned he head in my direction as the beat down car reached a stop light. Worry shown on her face, "What is it? I didn't forget anything, did I?"
I shook my head, "It's just that... we live in a very small apartment."
"Yes?"
"And well... we don't have much money... and it just makes me wonder... well...you know..."
"What?"
I took in a deep breath, well here goes nothing, "How in the world are we going to support him?"
Mom turned back around to face the road, noticing how the light turned green, but she looked at me through the mirror. "Listen to me, Matthew. No matter what happens, we will never be too poor to help somebody out. Alfred has gone through a lot, and we are helping him with a fresh start. The bills might be piling up, but I get my taxes back soon, and those will be dealt with. It will be a bumpy start, but things will soon smoothen out."
I sighed, "I understand, it just makes me worry."
Mom returned her eyes to the road, "You are a young and intelligent boy. The only thing you have to be worrying about is your future and getting good grades. Let me worry about supporting you two, while you worry about becoming an Environmental Scientist like you want to be." I smiled. I had to have the best mom ever. She would always support me until the end.
"Thank you, Mom."
Mom nodded her head. "You're welcome. Now there's a couple of things that I want to go over with you."
"What is it?"
"Well I already told you this before, but since we only have two bedrooms back in the apartment, you and Alfred will have to share a room. Also I was told that Alfred is a little naive when it comes to the city life."
I nodded in agreement, "That's to be expected considering his background."
Mom continued, "Well if he has any questions, please explain things, and make it as simple as possible, alright?" I nodded my head once again, "Good. Also there's one important thing. Whatever you do, just don't mention anything about Texas, or the farm. The social worker told me that he has not yet found a way to deal with it, and that we should not upset him until he is ready to face his past."
"Alright, so I should also avoid saying anything about our father, right?"
Mom nodded, "Especially that, it would be better if we just wait for him to be ready to talk about it. So how was school today?"
"Good, there was a history test today, and I think that I did really good on it."
Mom raised an eyebrow, "really? History was never your best subject, I am proud of you! How about we have your favorite food as dinner to celebrate."
"Pancakes?"
"If it's pancakes you want, then it's pancakes we will eat. I'm sure that Alfred will like pancakes." I smiled. She was the only person who would never forget about me. I just hoped that this Alfred guy would not take my only form of attention away. I didn't really think that would happen though, it was just a little bit of doubt. The car came to a sudden stop and Mom unlocked the doors, "We're here."
XXX
I scanned the crowded airport for any sign of my twin brother, "What does he look like again?" I asked out loud.
"Well I wasn't given a description of what he looks like now, but when Alfred was just a baby, he had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, you two are twins so he most likely looks similar to you."
I nodded and looked for dirty blonde hair. Suddenly I saw a boy walking towards us with a woman in a gray suit. I tapped my mother's shoulder to get her attention, "Is that him?"
Mom's eyes lit up and she rushed over to the two people, I followed feeling a little less ecstatic. "Alfred!" She called out. She reached out her arms, and gave the boy a hug. He was wearing worn down jeans and a simple white hoodie that was torn in some places. He had dirty blonde hair that fell down his face in layers with a strand of his blonde locks sticking randomly in the air. His sparkling blue eyes were wide in surprise and his body stiffened, clearly confused on why this person was hugging him. Noticing how he wasn't hugging her back, Mom took a step back and she glanced at him in realization, "Sorry, I guess that I should have introduced myself instead of just hugging you right away." She then gently picked up Alfred's hand from his side and started to shake it. "My name is Sarah Williams."
"Oh!" Alfred exclaimed as he shook her hand in excitement. "I thought that you were just another random stranger. There are a lot of those around here. So you are my..."
"Mother. I am your birth mother," Mom said giving him a loving smile.
Alfred nodded in understanding, "So... I should call you Mom?"
Mom stared at him, "Only if you want to, you can take as long as you want to get used to your surroundings."
Alfred smiled, "Alright... Mom." Even though she made it look like it was no big deal before, her face shinned with glee after hearing Alfred refer to her as Mom. As Mom introduced herself to the social worker, Alfred walked up to me, "Are you Matthew?" I nodded and he gave me an excited smile, "Cool! I just found out that I had a twin just a little while ago. To think that somebody that looked just like me was living all the way across the country this whole time!" He took my hand and shook it enthusiastically. Wow, he was strong. I felt my hand crush under his grip and my arm wiggled weakly as he shook it.
"Well it's nice to see you too," I responded.
Alfred paused and looked at me in curiosity, "Say, what's with your voice?"
"M-My voice?"
He nodded, "You and Mom talk really funny."
I gave him a questioning look, "You mean our accents?" Alfred nodded, "Oh. We're Canadian."
Alfred's eyes widened, "I didn't know that you were from Canadia!"
"Well I wasn't born there, but my Mother was, and it's pronounced Canada."
Alfred shook his head, "No it's not, it's Canadia!"
Before I could correct him once again, I was interrupted, "Well, should we get going?" Mom asked. I nodded and we all started heading to the car.
XXX
"Here we are!" Mom cheered as we entered the apartment. We were greeted to a worn down apartment. The white paint on the wall was chipped, and the carpets were scrubbed to their breaking point from all of our attempts to clean them. The windows were covered in dust behind the torn curtains. There wasn't much of a view from them anyways. There was a single window that showed the busy street, below that window were the fire escapes, the rest of the windows were a couple feet away from meeting another brick building. There were only three rooms in the apartment. The room that we walked into was the biggest. We were greeted by crowding furniture. On the left side of the room, was a small living room section. There was a small loveseat that had stuffing sticking out of it in some places. In front of the loveseat, was an old TV that weighed about seventy pounds which was supported on a coffee table that would break any day now. I could see the legs of the coffee table start to splinter away. To the right of the room, was a small kitchen area completely covering the right wall. Three wooden counters were smashed together; the wood on it was starting to rot. Beside those three counters, was an overused gas stove and, besides that was a fridge that roared at random times in the night, jolting anybody awake from the loud noise. A small trash bin was placed off to the side along with the pantry since there was absolutely no room left on the right wall. In the middle of the room, was a wooden table with three chairs around it, there was usually only two, but that obviously had to change. Mom bought the extra chair a couple of days before Alfred's arrival. The back room was taken up by two doors. One door led to Mom's room, which contained a single twin-sized bed, and a dresser, nothing else would fit. Mom insisted that I had the bigger room. The other led to my room. "Matthew, could you please show Alfred your room while I talk with the social worker?"
I nodded, "Come on, Alfred." Alfred followed silently as I lead him to the door on the right. I swung open the door and entered my bedroom. It wasn't much. There was a single twin-sized bed in the corner of the room. Besides the door that led to my closet, there was a small desk that was covered in open textbooks. Next to that was a small bookcase where a small table lamp sat. "Do you need help with your bags-" I cut myself off as I saw Alfred place a single backpack onto the desk's chair. "Do you have any more bags in the car?"
Alfred shook his head, "Nope, this is it."
I unzipped his bag and looked inside, "It's mostly filled with books, don't you have any clothes or anything?"
Alfred moved me aside and rummaged through the bag until he was able to pull out a couple articles of clothing. It looked more like a pile of rags to me, "I have these."
I stared at the small pile of clothing in shock, he had so little. It really showed the life he lived in Texas, "I'll let you borrow some of my clothes."
Alfred's eyes lit up, "Really?"
I nodded, "You are definitely not going to school wearing that on Monday."
"Thanks!"
"Well I would give you a tour of the rest of the apartment, but there really isn't much left to show you."
"How about the bathroom?"
I shook my head, "The whole apartment building shares one bathroom, it's down stairs the fourth door to the right when you walk in."
Alfred nodded in understanding, "I can hold it. I will definitely get lost."
I chuckled, "I'll show you where it is after we get you all settled in."
"Matthew, Alfred," Mom called. We walked out of my room and into the main part of the apartment. "Are any of you hungry?"
"Where's Sophia?" Alfred asked. I could only guess that he was talking about the social worker.
"She left, but she wanted me to send you her best wishes."
Alfred nodded, "So what's for dinner?"
"Pancakes," I answered.
"Cool! Not every day do you have pancakes for dinner?"
"Actually, it's pretty normal for us."
Alfred turned to me wide eyed, "It is!? Wow! This place is awesome!" It was weird how Alfred didn't even take notice of the poor conditions in the apartment, as if it was just a normal house. Even when I told him where the bathroom was, he was worried that he was going to get lost, not that he had to share a single bathroom with everybody in the apartment. Now that I thought about it, this might have actually been considered as a great way of living compared to his life back in Texas. I didn't know every detail, but I knew what happened to him.
"Well, do you want me to show you where the bathroom is?" I asked.
Alfred nodded, "Yes! I didn't know that there was a bathroom on the plane so I didn't use it, and I can't remember the last time I went!" I opened the door and he followed me out into the hallway. It was dark and narrow, with only one window to shine light into since the hallway lights were busted. I lead him to the narrow stairs and the wooden steps creaked under our pressure. We walked down the stairs until we reached the ground floor; we lived on the fifth floor so this took quite a long time. I could hear voices down the hall, but they were only from the apartments. The walls were always thin. I lead him to the front door, and then started walking down the main hallway.
"Once you walk through the door, it's the fourth door to the right. Make sure you knock first," Alfred nodded and started pounding his fist on the door. The loud bangs echoed down the hallway, "but not so loud!"
Alfred paused, "Oh, my bad." He paused for moment and swung open the bathroom door after hearing no reaction to his loud knocking. He closed the door behind him and I paused for a minute, not knowing what to do next.
"Will you be able to find your way back to the apartment?" I asked.
"Ya, the hero never gets lost!"
"Er, alright." I decided to ignore his weird response and walked back up the stairs. I could already smell pancakes cooking. I quickly opened the apartment door and closed it behind me.
"Where's Alfred?" Mom asked.
"The bathroom, he said that he could find his way back on his own."
Mom placed a large pile of pancakes in the center of the table, "Well I hope that he doesn't get lost."
I nodded, "So what are we going to do about sleeping arrangements? We only have two beds in this apartment after all."
Mom hummed in thought, "I do suppose that is a problem. I guess that Alfred could sleep in my room and I sleep on the couch until we can figure something out."
"No!" I protested instantly. "You work very hard, you deserve to have a good night's rest. I will sleep on the couch."
Mom shook her head, "I work hard for you, and I certainly do not want you sleeping on an uncomfortable couch all night."
Suddenly I heard a knock on the door, "Ms. Williams, is something wrong with your son? He just asked me for directions to his own apartment." Mom and I shared a knowing look before I reached for the door. Standing in the doorway, was a tan teenager who had hair that was black, but sometimes looked blue in certain kinds of light. It was Juan, we walked to the bus stop together on school days. I met him when he moved here from Mexico with his family. He lived on the first floor, he must have heard Alfred wandering around in the hallway. Juan stared at me, then back at Alfred, then back at me, then back at Alfred, then back at me. He wore a completely confused expression, "¿Qué joder?"
I grabbed Alfred's hand and pulled him into our apartment, "Juan, this is Alfred. He's my brother that I was telling you about."
"You didn't tell me that you were identical!" Juan exclaimed. Alfred shook Juan's hand as strongly as he did with me when we first met.
"Hiya!"
"Hola, my name is Juan."
I closed my eyes and silently pleaded Alfred not to point out his Spanish accent. Luck was not on my side, "Hey! You have a funny accent too! Where are you from?"
Juan looked a little taken aback, "Funny? I- er- I'm from Mexico."
Alfred looked amazed, "Wow! I never met anybody from South America! That's where all of the pandas are, right?"
Juan stared at Alfred completely deadpanned, "What?"
I face palmed, "I'm sorry if he offended you."
Juan gave me a nod, and then turned back to Alfred, "Well it was nice to meet you... I guess." He then leaned over to me, "You might want to give him a geography lesson." I nodded in agreement and he then turned around. "Well, I will see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye!" I called quickly and shut the door. I sent a glare to Alfred, who gave me a sheepish smile, "Really? I thought you said that you wouldn't get lost."
Alfred shrugged like it was nothing, but his eyes showed relief that he had finally found the apartment, "I couldn't find the staircase."
I shook my head and sat down at the table, "By the way, Mexico is in North America, and pandas are in Asia."
"Well Asia is in South America, right?" I shook my head, "oh." Alfred stared at the pancakes in the middle of the table, "can we eat those?"
Mom laughed as she passed the pile of Pancakes around the table, "Well they certainly are not there for decoration." Alfred poured four pancakes onto the plate and started to bury them in maple syrup. He then grabbed a fork, and tried to shove a whole pancake into his mouth. To my amazement, he actually did it. I placed a single pancake onto my plate and added twice as much syrup as he did for four pancakes. I cut a piece of pancake off with my fork and put it into my mouth as Alfred chewed loudly. Maple syrup dribbled onto his chin and he wiped it with his hands, causing the syrup to spread and stick. Mom laughed at this and offered him a napkin, "Is it safe to say that you like them?" Alfred tried to respond, but the whole pancake in his mouth that he was trying to chew muffled every word he said. He simply nodded his head and gave her a syrupy smile. He finally swallowed the large piece of food and wipped his mouth with the napkin, "Now I am just letting you know that due to the bed shortages, you are going to sleep in my room."
Alfred looked up from his food, "Where are you going to sleep?"
"On the couch."
Alfred shook his head, "No. I'll sleep on the couch!"
Mom and I stared at him shocked, neither of us predicted that, "Are you sure?" I asked.
Alfred smiled, "Yeah, you guys took me in when I didn't have anywhere else to go, you did so much for me. You deserve to sleep in your own beds."
I stared at him, "I didn't do anything for you, that was Mom, you can take my bed, and I'll sleep on the couch."
Alfred shook his head, "You don't have that option, no matter what I am sleeping on that couch!" Declaring the end of the conversation, he shoved another pancake into his mouth. The rest of the time we spent eating consisted of small talk and trying to ignore Alfred's obnoxious table manners. Once dinner was finished, Mom insisted on doing the dishes and Alfred and I went to my room. I rummaged through my small closet and came out with a pair of jeans and a simple green tee-shirt with a small logo on the left shoulder.
I tossed the clothes to Alfred, "Here, try these on."
Alfred looked down at the clothing in his hands, "Why?"
"If you're going to borrow my clothes, we should at least make sure that you can fit into them."
Alfred looked around the room, "You want me to change here?" I nodded, "With you in the room?"
I sighed, "I'm not going to watch you! I'll have my back turned the whole time." Alfred nodded and refused to move a muscle until I was facing the opposite direction of him. I waited patiently as I heard him slipping out of the clothes he was wearing. After a minute or two, I turned around to see him staring at himself in the mirror and examining his clothes. They were a perfect fit. The blue jeans ended just below his ankles where his old pair of pants had to be rolled up. The green shirt wasn't baggy like his white hoodie and perfectly fit his figure.
"How does it look?"
I gave him a thumbs up, "You look great."
"Cool!"
"Alfred!" Mom called. Alfred exited my room after hearing his name being called and I followed him out curiously. Mom sat up from the couch, holding a cardboard box in her hands. She took one look at him and gave him a delighted smile, "You look so handsome! Did Matthew let you borrow some of his clothes?" I nodded and she happily thanked me. She then directed her attention back to Alfred. "I have a little welcome gift for you!"
Alfred's eyes widened in surprise, "You do?" Mom nodded and handed Alfred a wooden box. He opened it and gaped at what he saw. He raised the brown pile of fabric in his hands, and held it up to get a better view. In his hands, was a brown bomber jacket. His hands ran over the dark fur-lined collar and he stared at it in awe. The jacket had large pockets and a star surround by a thin circle on the upper right.
"Try it on!" Mom chirped excitably. Alfred slipped his arms into the jacket stared down. "You look amazing!" Suddenly Alfred's eyes became glossy and a tear ran down his cheek. Mom paused, "What's wrong?"
Alfred let out a choked sob and buried his head into his hands. I walked over to him and watched in worry. Alfred shook his head, "I'm sorry. This is probably not the reaction you were hoping for." He let more tears fall freely from his eyes, and let out a shaky breath. "It's just that... nobody has ever done anything so nice for me before. Just... Thank you." I gave Alfred a sweet smile, knowing that he was only crying from happiness.
Mom gave him a hug, "We're here for you now, Alfred." I rubbed his back in comforting circles until he calmed down and wiped his tears away. He gave us a warm smile, and the room fell into a comfortable silence. Mom stood from her seat and grabbed a towel from a clean laundry basket off to the side, "Well, I am going to see if nobody is using the bathroom, usually around this time of night, most people are sleeping."
Alfred nodded and let out a yawn, he waved her good bye, and soon laid down on the couch, "I have some pajamas if you want to use them." Alfred nodded and followed me into my room. I handed him a pair of pajama pants and a white tee-shirt. Then I left the room for him to get changed, because he would not stop staring at me uncomfortably until I either turned the other way or left the room. If that was how he normally acted when it came to changing with other people, then he was going to have a fit in the locker rooms on Monday. I grabbed an extra blanket from a closet and spread it across the couch. Alfred walked into the room as I placed a pillow against the arm rest, "There you go Alfred. Well I am going to get to sleep."
Alfred looked into my eyes, "Thank you." I would have taken this as just a normal thank you if it weren't for the way he looked at me. In his eyes I could practically see the large amount of gratitude he felt. He wasn't just thanking me for setting up his sleeping area, he was thanking me for everything.
"You're welcome," with that I left to my room to fall asleep.
XXX
I jerked awake and let out a gasp as I heard this loud bang. I let out a groan and jumped out of bed, it was the fridge again. I walked into the kitchen area to see that I was right. The fridge was roaring and started shaking, it did that once in a while, I never knew why. I heard a door open and Mom wobbled into the room, still barely awake. "Is it the fridge again?" I nodded.
"What time is it?"
Mom stopped and looked at the clock hanging on the wall, "Three oclock in the morning."
I yawned and squinted to read the clock in the darkness. Alfred must have been terrified by the sudden loud noise. It must have been twice as loud since he was sleeping in the same room as the monstrous fridge. I glanced over in Alfred's direction to see the scene I was least expecting. Alfred was curled up on the couch, sleeping like a baby. I had absolutly no idea how he could sleep through that. His chest was rising and falling calmly and some drool dripped from his mouth to his pillow. I pointed over in Alfred's direction, "Is he deaf?"
Mom chuckled, "From the looks of it he is just a heavy sleeper."
"A really heavy sleeper." We took a seat at the table and started to wait for the fridge to stop making so much noise, usually it only took a couple of minutes. "Hey, how much did Alfred's jacket cost?" I asked glancing over at the sleeping teenager. He insisted on wearing it even while he was sleeping.
Mom shrugged, "it didn't cost too much, it was on sale."
I gave her a serious look, "Didn't cost too much? That is real leather and real fur, I'm sure that the sale wasn't that much of a saver."
Mom gave me a look, "It cost forty dollars, but I had it on layaway for a while, so it didn't cost much for that good of a jacket. Now what did I say about worrying about money? We are going to be fine no matter what happens, do you understand?" I nodded, "Good. I just don't want you to put so much stress on yourself, I know how much you kids have to worry about these days. High school definitely got harder from when I was a kid. I see you kids lugging around bags that weigh more than you do. Nowadays you children are put under so much stress, you definitely don't need any more."
I nodded in agreement and smiled at her, "Alright, I'll leave it to you to worry about the money." With that the fridge stopped and we went our separate ways back to bed. As Mom already left to her room, I paused with my hand on my bedroom door's handle. I couldn't rid the feeling that I was being watched. I turned my head and could I sworn that I saw a pair of light blue eyes looking back at me. I shook my head and glanced at Alfred again, he was still sleeping, snoring lightly and drooling. I shook the creeped out feeling away and opened my door. As I hopped into bed, I thought about everything that happened today. In one single afternoon, so much changed. While other kids were at the mall and hanging out with their friends, I was meeting my twin brother who was separated from me just a couple months after birth, and was living in a state across the whole country this whole time. I shut my eyes and snuggled under the covers, I couldn't exactly promise myself that things were going to get better, but I fell asleep peacefully due to the fact that things were certainly going to change.
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Author's notes: Sorry for the long wait! I had a lot of writing to do besides this story. Also yes, I did add Mexico in here, because Mexico is f*cking amazing. He wasn't given a character name, so I just looked him up on one of those fan character websites. I went with Juan, and what he said when he walked was "What the fuck" in Spanish (I used internet translation, sorry if it's wrong.) By the way, PruCan is not a pairing that I am using in this story. There is just going to be bromance… and lots of it.
I am aware that Alfred was a little OOC in this chapter, but that was just because this chapter didn't leave me much room to give you a full introduction of him. He becomes more in character later. Also I'm pretty sure that at some point of this chapter, you were questioning what the bloody hell happened in Texas… that will be explained in full detail later on in the story. You can take a wild guess from what information I gave you so far though.
Please review and thank you for reading! Next chapter will be updated by next week!
