WARNING: Bullying


As we rode the bus home Monday, it became increasingly obvious that there was something terribly wrong.

Sitting with all three of us in a single seat-there wasn't really room to sit elsewhere anyway-I hung on the the seat in front of us, trying not to fall into the aisle. Arthur got the window spot per usual, and Matthew was squished in between us. That wasn't what was strange.

As we started the daily round of small talk-the "Do you have homework" and "how was your day" usually got someone to start an actual conversation-I noticed that Matthew was avoiding speaking at all costs.

"So, what did you think of the 'mystery meat' they served at lunch today?" I asked, hoping maybe that might just bring him out of his funk. Matt scrunched up his nose and shrugged. Arthur gave him a confused glance before saying, "Just about made me want to gag seeing people eat it. You blokes sure are odd that you can stomach that garbage."

"Art, you've been here long enough that you should be used to it by now."

"Three years isn't long enough." Matthew was just staring at the floor, deaf to our short lived conversation. Looking back and forth between the two of us, Arthur gave me an inquisitive look and I answered back with a shrug. Matt didn't give any hint that he noticed.

"Matthew," Arthur started cautiously, "are you feeling alright?"

The sudden question snapped him out of his trance and he just nodded silently. That was the moment I realized that there was something wrong.

"Did you lose your voice today or something, dude?" I asked hoping that this time he would actually say something. Instead, he just shook his head and shrugged. I had grown up used to the fact that he did speak a lot or loudly, by going straight up mute wasn't normal.

"Bro, then why aren't you talking?" He didn't respond for a second, and sat there as still as was physically possible on the constantly bumpy bus. After a minute, he just shrugged and continued to stare down at the floor. Arthur gave me a concerned look. All I could do was give him a shrug and a frown.

Soon the bus stopped at the beginning of Symphony Lane and we all piled off. Walking the quarter mile back to our house, Matthew and I broke off towards our yard. Looking over my shoulder, I called, "See you tomorrow, Arthur!"

"It's not like we have any choice, Al!" he called back, trudging home through the snow.

As I turned back towards the house, I heard the front door slam loudly. Worried, I jogged up what I assumed was the driveway or yard onto the front porch. Opening the door slowly, I found a calamitous scene.

There was a small pile of snow melting on the floorboards that had been knocked off Matthew's boots. His backpack had been thrown haphazardly into the living room, a couple pencils and wrappers laying on the floor near it. Right next to the door, curled under the coat rack was Matthew, shoulders shaking and breath hitching.

"Oh, dude!" I exclaimed, quickly shutting the door and kneeling down next to him. Putting a hand on his shoulder, I tried to calmly say, "Hey, it's okay. You're going to be okay. Just tell me what's up." Visibly trembling, he didn't respond or calm in the slightest.

After what felt like much too long, I sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He sat next to me bawling, not reacting to anything I said. Shushing him a bit and rubbing his shoulder, I gently said, "It's okay. Let it out. You're okay."

Suddenly through the sobs, he managed to get out, "They hate me, Al."

Thrown aback for a second, I asked, "Who does?" He didn't respond for a while, heavy, pain-filled tears rolling down his cheeks. "My friends," he got out in barely a whisper. Something inside me suddenly snapped. I had only met his current friends a couple times, but I was going to knock their front teeth in the second I saw them. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I shook my head a bit.

"Those...bastards," I spat out after a minute. Feeling myself shake a bit, I tried to remain calm for Matt. He didn't need to worry about me killing someone when he had something much more important going on.

At that point he seemed to be forcing himself to calm down. His breathing started to become more even and relaxed, the quivering stopped, but the tears still flowed. After a minute or so, he stuttered in a shaky voice, "T-they...they started spreading rumours about me." I'm not sure if he saw me look at him or not but he continued anyway.

"They've been saying that I...that I was controlling who they were allowed to be friends with. A-and that I was threatening to...do things to them be-because..." His voice broke and he started wiping rapidly at the source of the tears, trying to pull himself back together.

"It's okay. Let it out if you need to." He let out a wavering breath, and stared down at his feet.

"They said I was threatening them not to tell anyone I was gay, Al." Looking over at him, shocked, he quickly added, "But I'm not! I don't know why they're saying all this. I've never actually had a crush on anyone let alone a guy and I just don't know what to do about any of it and-"

Taking a deep breath, trying to control my rising anger, I shushed him and calmly asked, "What do you think happened that caused them to start acting like this?" He played with the hem of his shirt for a while, staring down at the melting snow on the floor.

"Remember last year when I turned those girls in for smoking behind the school?" I just nodded, waiting for him to continue. "They kind of hate me now and a couple of them started dating Randy, Max and Herbert." It took me a minute to realize who the people were.

Patting him on the shoulder, I bitterly said, "Then they're not anyone you actually want to spend time with if they treat you like shit because of a bunch of girls."

"Al, I don't have anyone else to talk to. I can't just sit alone at lunch. I...just..." His breath hitched a bit, and his cheeks wettened again. Simply, I just pulled him into a hug again, quieting him. After he calmed again, I muttered to him, "If it can't get worse, then it can only get better, Matt." Then I got up, grabbed a phone and walked upstairs.

Punching in Gil's number, I angry locked myself in our bedroom and listened with annoyance to the ringing on the other end of the line.

"Hallo, the awesome Gilbert is speaking." There were a couple other voices in the back, laughing, their words unadiable. "Hey, Gil, it's Al. Tonio and Franny are there right?"

"Ja, they're here. What's up?"

"Can you put it on speaker real quick?" Somewhere I heard Gil yell for them to shut up and there was a beep.

"What's the matter, mon ami?" Francis's voice rang through the telephone.

"It happened again," I said bitterly, trying not to let my anger get the best of me by smashing the phone into the floor. "Matt's friends started dating some girls who hate him and they're alienating him." There was silence on the other end.

Suddenly, there was the sound of air rushing past the speaker and a thud as the phone hit something. After a few seconds, Gil picked up the phone again. Sounding unusually perky, Gilbert calmly said, "Well that means we have to give those bastards a lesson, huh? You know what, I'm going to pick you two up tomorrow. Tell Birdie that. See you tomorrow, Al." With that, he hung up.

Even though we weren't related in anyway, Francis and Gilbert thought of Matt as basically their little brother, while Antonio probably wouldn't have gone anywhere past a close friend...who he was also protective of. For probably the first time, I was thankful that they cared so much about my little brother.

Driving slowly over the dark, ice covered road, no one really spoke much. Scrunched up in the back with Francis and I, Matthew, after a while, uttered out a, "Thanks again for giving us a ride."

"Ja, anytime, Birdie." Matthew seemed to be taken aback by the nickname for a second but didn't comment on it.

We all sat in the quiet car, sometimes staring out the window or watching the road, the radio almost silently playing in the background. Whatever song had been playing before ended and the next song came on. All of the sudden, Antonio yelled out, "Yes!" He then proceeded to turn the radio up excessively high.

"So make the best of this test and don't ask why,

It's not a question but a lesson learned in time,

It's something unpredictable and in the end it's right-"

An out of tune, off key chorus broke out throughout the car, "I HOPE YOU HAD THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!" Surprised a bit by the random outburst, Matthew and I just laughed a bit at the trio who continued to scat the instrumental. "You guys can't sing," I muttered, shaking my head a bit.

"We sound beautiful, Al," Gil said, shoving my leg a bit, not taking his gaze off the road. Laughing a bit, I answered back with a, "Whatever let's you sleep at night."

"Ooooh!" Francis and Antonio called out in unison over the radio, earning another laugh from me. Matthew smiled a bit which was good enough for me.

"You guys are supposed to be on my side!"

"Not anymore, amigo!" Antonio chuckled. Gilbert rolled his eyes and put a disgusted look on his face.

As soon as it came on, "Good Riddance" ended and the radio went back down to its usual dull hum. We sat in almost silence until Gilbert pulled into the parking lot of the middle school. "You guys still have to ride the bus home, got that?"

"Okay. Thanks for the ride," Matthew muttered, but before he could climb out, Gil randomly asked, "You gonna be okay, kid?" Completely confused, Mattie just simply replied, "Why wouldn't I be?" Then with that he opened the door, climbed over me and hopped out slamming the car door behind him. Just as he started to walk away, Gilbert backed out of his spot and into one towards the back of the lot. Turning the engine off I heard him utter, "Now just turn on later." Then he basically yelled, "Now get out of my car we have business to take care of!"

Marching into the school, we discovered it was harder than expected to make or way through the horde of people a good foot shorter than all of us. Wading our way to the Principal's Office, I heard Gilbert mutter, "So many short people," with distaste. Snickering a bit, I looked up at the handful of kids-probably in grade six-staring at us, five seconds away from a heart attack. "Boo," I said jokingly, making them actually back up a bit, which got a chuckle out of me. Other than that, barely any of them gave us the time of day.

Part of me missed the way the social groups set themselves up in the lobby before school, and the rest of me was glad I was finally out of the pit where kids didn't know that they needed deodorant.

Walking into the Office, a wave of nostalgia washed over me, memories of all the hours I spent sitting in here getting told off for punching someone, or being the instigator in a fight. Good times. They seriously need to get new decor or something in here, jeez. I thought as I realized the same blood stain was on the seat from the one time I broke Bennett Erkright's nose. Now that was an incredibly pleasant conversation.

"No," The secretary blurted out looking wide eyed and panicked. "No, I just got rid of him last year and you three are most definitely in high school now."

"Nice to see you too," Gilbert muttered under his breath.

"No, no Señora," Antonio said calmly, "we're here on behalf of a student here."

Throwing some confused glances back and forth between the three of us, she visually relaxed. "Speak," she said after a moment.

"You know my brother, Matthew, probably not." She shook her head, before I continued. "He's in eighth grade, Matthew Williams. Uh, well his friends are kind of bullying him right now." Nailed it.

She stared at me for a moment, "I'm not going to ask about his last name, but you're here because he's being bullied and isn't reaching out to get help with it."

"Right," Francis answered for me. She sighed a bit, muttering something that sounded vaguely like, "Not again," and dialed a few numbers into the number pad next to her. Holding a finger up to us, she held the phone up to her ear.

After two audible rings, the door suddenly opened again, allowing for none other than Matthew to enter the scene. Glaring to the best of his ability, he kind of stormed over to the four of us and angrily susurrated, "What are you doing here?"

"Hi, Mr. Gilmore," the receptionist said into the phone. Matthew looked at us with bugged out eyes, confused. After a brief pause she continued, "Yes, we had another case reported. Do you have time this morning in power hour?" There was a voice on the other end that might have well been speaking in sotto voce, which seemed completely out of character for Mr. Gilmore-who probably should have been a P.E. teacher instead of the school counselor. "Wonderful," she said in an inappropriately cheery voice. "Matthew Williams. I'll write up a pass for him right now."

Mattie spun around so fast it probably should have given him whiplash. "What did you do?" He was definitely irritated, his voice was almost at a normal speaking volume for anyone else. His gaze darting rapidly between the four of us, he suddenly lashed out at the trio. "How did you guys even find out? I never told you about any of this! This wasn't any of your business to begin wi..."

Randomly trailing off and breathing heavy, his face dropped towards the floor and his volume level suddenly returned to it's normal murmuring. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I just wanted to handle this by myself. I'm sorry for yelling at you guys, just...tell me next time." Why did he sound so ashamed of himself? He had a reason to be upset with us, I would have in his position. Besides, that was the most I had heard him say in about a month!

Coughing fakely to get our attention, the secretary handed a little purple slip to Matthew after saying, "What happens in this office stays in the office. And you four, get to school."

"Yes, ma'am," Gilbert and Francis said in unison, while I simply said, "Yes'm," and Antonio replied with a, "Sí, Señora."

"Where were you this morning? You showed up twenty minutes late," Arthur pointed out as we trudged through the snow on our way home. Kicking some ice chunks, I shrugged a bit and said, "Matthew had a project that he had to take into school so Gil gave us a ride and we got it into the school and something broke so I had to help him fix it."

"Oh," Arthur said, obviously buying it. "What class was it for?" Stalling for a second, I quickly said, "Sp-science." It earned me an odd look from him, but he shrugged it off after a couple more yards.

His friends never got in trouble for harassing him, and they still lingered around him sometimes in the hallway. We had started walking to most of our classes together so they never really got much of a chance to do anything except mutter less than flattering phrases about us. I knew Arthur must have noticed them at that point, he usually noticed everything before me...and sometimes even pointed out or explained things to me. Don't judge. But I was kind of hoping that they would eventually give up on trying to pick on him and go back to their usual, miserable lives.

We didn't talk much that day, probably because there wasn't much to say. Or our minds were both off somewhere else. Soon enough I was back home, walking in the front door. "Hey, Mattie," I called out waiting for him to respond. He didn't, he barely ever did anymore.

Making my way into the living room, I found him sitting on the couch, staring vacantly out the window. Flopping down next to him, I pointed him in the ribs and asked, "How was your day?" Shrugging, he looked back at me and muttered, "Could have been better." Waiting patiently for him to give more information, eventually he gave in and said, "The six of them were taken out of class. Apparently they aren't eminently convincing liars and I think they got suspended for a couple days." There was a brief quiet before Matt sighed and said, "I have to go check in with Mr. Gilmore a couple more times in the next couple months. That'll be just great." It was always kind of amusing when Matthew used sarcasm, he usually didn't get sassy like that.

Chuckling a bit, I said, "Well, from here on out it can only get better." Shrugging, Matt said nothing and his gaze returned to the window. Shoving him gently, I happily said, "You know what, we should celebrate. Go grab Kumajirou and we can throw a wild party." Rolling his eyes at me, he said in a hushed tone, "I would but I kind of don't have him anymore."

"What?" I exclaimed in total surprise. "What happened?"

"Randy took him." After a minute he followed it up with a, "But I told Mr. Gilmore about it so I should get him back." I was really starting to hate how distant and empty his stare was. Hugging him quickly, I said, "You know what, since Mom can't tell us not to, we're making pancakes."

The corners of his mouth pulled up in a weak, small, shy smile.

I was starting to miss seeing him smile.


Short but angsty chapter. You're welcome. And I know I said I was going to get this out before I left on vacation, but guess who just couldn't focus enough to write.

Anyway this is also the chapter that I've been talking about for like the last three chapters because it's finally a chapter about Matthew! (Also take note and make guesses when it mentions he's never had a crush on anyone)

Also I just want to talk about the nicknames used in this chapter. Tonio and Franny you will more than likely see again in this story, Birdie may only be a one chapter thing, I'm not sure yet. I am also going to state that I do not ship Canada with anyone at the current moment, I know that Birdie is something that is used with PruCan, but just not in this story.

Changing the subject over to "the Middle School Experience," most of this stuff is based on true experiences. Sixth Graders are generally weirdly scared of people older than them and have no concept of the fact that they actually need to use deodorant. The Secretaries generally don't know you unless you get in trouble a lot (at least with my experience). Also Power Hour is the first twenty minutes of the day where you sit and "read" while a teacher hovers over you. I'm also going to point out that Middle School deals with bullying a lot harsher than they do at the High School, and it's probably only because they start giving up on you in High School.

There were also two different book references in this chapter. One was part of a line from "The Outsiders," if any of you have read that or can find it. And the other is "Yes'm," which was just an inside joke for the entire grade throughout Seventh Grade because we were all forced to read the same book where the characters say that constantly.

That's all I have to say about this chapter, but I am not going to leave before saying, keep a look out for some new stories I might be starting soon. I got a lot of AU ideas while on vacation that I'm thinking about writing. A couple of them will just be Oneshots and the others will be the first chapters to some longer stories that I will write after this.

That's all folks, thanks for reading!